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i #v
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FORE AND AFT
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FORE AND AFT
THE STORY OF THE FORE & AFT RIG
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO
THE PRESENT DAY
BY
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON
AUTHOR or
*' 8AIUNG SHIPS 6* THtn STORT,** "TBB ROMANCB OF THE SHIP."
"STBAMSHIPS 6* TREIK STORT," "DOWN CHANMBL IN THE *VIVBTTR/
'* THK ITORT OP THE BRITISH NAVT** '
WITH OVER 100 ILLUSTRATIONS 6* PLANS
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
LONDON: SEELEY, SERVICE isT CO. LTD.
1912
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\
' 'c. '
PrinUd by BALLAifTTifB, HAmoN 6^ Co.
At the BalUntjiM Ptms, Iduibiirgh
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TO
THE MEN OF
THE FORE-AND-AFT RIO,
YACHTSMEN, PILOTS, FISHERMEN, COASTERS,
I DEDICATE
THESE PAGES
267559 ^.^.^.^^ ^^ Google
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PREFACE
THE fore-and-aft rig, though of much later origin than that
of the square-sail, is far more varied in its developments.
If we reckon by actual numbers we shall find that to-day, while
the square-ri^ed ship is gradually becoming rarer and rarer,
yet the fore-and-after still continues to thrive, to multiply and
to improve in every way — ^in design of hull no less than in
details of gear.
It is, therefore, only fit and proper that the history of the
fore-and-aft type of vessel should follow that of her older
sister, and the following pages will show that her story is full
of interest and fascination. So much confusion and error exist
among sailing-men in regard to the place or manner of the
origin and evolution of their craft that it is well that the facts
should be set right at once. As to the methods of investigation
which have been employed in collecting the materiflJ for this
book, the ensuing pages will explain.
Additional to my own independent research, I have laid
myself under obligation to that of various other writers, and
especially I desire to mention the following: — Pritchett^s
Sketches qf Shipping and Crcfft^ Warington Smyth^s Mcui and
Sail, Clark^s Hiitory qf Yachtings Chapman^s JrchUectura
Navaliiy Cooke's Shipping and Crcfft^ Chamock^s Hietory of
Marine Archiiedure^ Hukius^s Voyages^ Tannery's Descriptive
Catalogue qf the Naval MSS. in the Pepysian Library ^ Pepys^
Diary^ Evelyn^s Diary^ the two volumes on Yachting in the
Badminton Library, Leslie^s Old Sea WingSy Guesfs History
qf the Royal Yacht Squadron^ articles by Heckstall Smith in
the new edition of the Encychpasdia Britannica and JJoySs
Calendar. I am also indebted for certain details to the
Yachting Monthly.
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10 PREFACE
1 wish to return thanks for the assistance rendered me in
various galleries and museums both in England and Holland
during my investigations, and have also to express my gratitude
to the following gentlemen, who so kindly placed various
designs and photographs at my disposal: — ^Mr« Walter Wood
for permission to reproduce the photographs of the Yorkshire
cobble, the Thames bawleys, the Scarborough fishing-ketch, and
the Galician lateener; to Mr. Norman S. Carr (who has made
many of the sketches) for the photographs of the Cornish
fishing craft, the Ostend fishing-smack, the reefing-gear of the
Bristol Channel pilot-cutter, ijie Isle of Marken botters, the
smaller photograph of the hoogarts fishing fleet, and the modem
boier yachts; to Mr. Harold Clayton for the designs of the
Bristol Channel pilot-cutter Fakh ; to Mr. C. Devereux Marshall
for the photograph of Maud; to Mr. Albert Strange for the
designs of the Seedy Sheiia IL, Cherub III.y and Norma;
to Mr. Colin Archer for the designs of the Norwegian rednings-
koite, the photographs of the Norwegian pilot-cutter and of the
From; to M. 6. So^ for certain information connected with,
and the plans of, the Frederikshaven fishing-boat, the Belgian
lugger, the Dunkirk fishing-ketch, the Gravelines lugger, the
Boulogne herring-drifter, the chasse-mar^ of St. Malo, the
Equihen lugger, the sardine luggers of Brittany and of the Ven-
d^, the Newfoundland barquentine, the Breton fishing-schooner,
and the Marseilles pilot craft.
It may be added that since the following pages were written
another cruise has been undertaken through the Netherlands,
and further opportunities have been taken advantage of in order
to confirm previous impressions and deductions regarding local
craft.
E. KEBLB CHATTEBTON.
AagvMt 1911.
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CONTENTS
OBAP. PA«
I. Introduction 17
II. The Origin or thk Fors-and-Aft Rio 9H
III. Origin or thc FoRX-AND-Arr Rig in Northrrn
EuRorc 44
IV. Thc Developmknt or thk FoRB-AND-Arr Rio in
Holland 88
V. Thi Introduction or Yachts into England 128
VI. Thi Influbncb of Holland on the Dbvklofment or
THE Fore-and-Aft Rig 16i
VII. The Fore-and-Aft Rig to-day in Great Britain and
America 219 ^
VIII. The Modern Fore-and-Aft Rig in Scandinavia,
HoLLANDi Belgium, France, and Southern Europe 277
11
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ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS
First English-built Yacht, the second Mofry Frontispiece
1. Italian Harbour, with Lateener 84
5. Mediterranean Tartana 86
8. Scheveningen Herring-Buss 61
4. Seventeenth Century Herring-Busses 64
6. Dutch Buss-ships 66
6. Dutch Galley 68
7. An Early Sixteenth Century Fore-and- After 69
8. Fore-and- Afters 64
9. The Dutch Polar Expedition 64
10. A Galley and other Fore-and-Afters in the Port of
Amsterdam 70
11. Dutch Sloops 74
12. The Origin of the Schooner (First Stage) 76
13. The Origin of the Schooner (Second Stage) 78
14. Dutch Market Barge 82
16. A Seventeenth Century Dutch River Scene 84
16. Seventeenth Century Dutch Sloops 92
17. A Dutch Yacht and other Craft 94
18. Dutch Shipping 96
19. A Dutch Boier and other Craft 102
20. A Seventeenth Century Dutch Sloop 104
21. Dutch Admiralty Yacht 106
12
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ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS
18
m. Seventeenth Centoiy Dutch Galleot
108
28. Nineteenth Century Dutch Galleots
110
S4. View of the Mam
112
95. Kof-Tjalk
112
96. Sail-plan of Kof-Tjalk
118
S7. Enkhnizen Beurtman
114
28. Paviljoen-Pom
117
29. Dutch Cutter
120
80. The Yacht in which Charles II. sailed
181
81. Semale Ship
184
82. Yorkshire Billy-Boy
184
38. The English Yacht, the second Maty
154
84. Some of Charles II's Yachts
164
85. Eighteenth Century Dutch Hoeker- Yacht
165
86. Nineteenth Century Dutch Craft
168
87. Eighteenth Century Craft
174
88. Fore-and-Aftera of the lliames
176
89. Dutch Schuyt
178
40. Hatch-boat in Gravesend Beach
178
41. English Revenue-Cutter
182
42. Dutch Bevenue-Cutter
184
48. Lines of a Cutter of the Year 1781
186
44. Design for a Yacht
186
46. A British Sloop-of-War
190
46. Scotch Trading Smacks
192
47. Fishing Smack
196
48. Cutter entering Littlehampton Harbour
196
49. Early Nineteenth Century Topsail Schooner
204
50. A Yarmouth Yawl
204
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14 ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS
61. The Yacht JuUanar
piai
210
62. Brighton Mackerel Craft
68. Brighton Hoggies
64. Scarborough *« Mule '^
66. Old Yarmouth Cobble
220
22X
22X
SS6
66. Scarborough Ketch
67. The Tliames Bawley
68. The Thames Bawley
69. Sloop-rigged Barges
60. Old Tliames Barge with Square-sails
61. Cowes Ketch
980
280
S86
9S8
988
62. Cornish Fbhing Craft
68. Beefing-gear of Bristol Channel Pilot Craft
64. Internal Accommodation and Deck-plan of the Bristol
240
240
Channel Pilot-Cutter Faiih
241
66. Bristol Channel Pilot-Cutter
248
66. lines of Bristol Channel Pilot-Cutter FaUh
248
67. Sail-plan of Bristol Channel Pilot-Cutter FaUh
249
68. The Britannia
252
69. The MMid
252
70. SaU-pIanofthe6>a/
258
71. The Outlook
256
72. Accommodation and Deck-plan of the Seal
72-A. lines of the 10-ton Yacht Seal
25T
269
78. American Cat-boat
262
74. The Westwofd
264
76. Sailing lifeboat
76. Norwegian Pilot-Cutter
77. Details of the iS^o; and her Dinghy
266
266
267
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ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS
15
78. SaU-pUn of Sheila II.
270
79. Plan of Cabin and Conatruction of Sheila II.
271
80. lion of Sheila II.
278
81. Sail-plan of Chemb III.
276
82. lAoet of Cherub III.
274
88. Sail-plan of Norma
276
84. Lines of JVbrma
278
85. Accommodation Plana of Norma
279
86. The/Vom
280
87. Accommodation Plans of Chemb III.
281
88. Ftederikshaven Fishing-boat
288
89. Sail-plan of Norwegian Lifeboat
288
90. Dutch Tjalks
290
91. A Smaller Dutch Tjalk
290
92. Lines of Norw^ian Lifeboat
291
98. Dutch Klipper
298
94. Dutch Botters
296
9S. Isle of Markm Botters
296
96. Hoogarts Fishing Fleet
296
97. Accommodation Plans of Norwegian Lifeboat
297
98. Dutch Schokkers
297
99. Flushing Harbour, with Fleet of Hoogarts
298
100. Hoogarts of Walchei«n
299
101. Dut^^h Boier
802
102. Ostend Fishing Smack
802
108. Modem Boier Yachts
802
104. Lines of Belgian Lu^er
808
106. Zuyder Zee Kub-boats
808
106. Modem Dutch Una-rig
806
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16
ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS
107. Scheveningen Pink
807
108. Eatwijk-Pom
809
109. Sail-plan of Belgian Lugger
811
110. Lines of Gravelines Lugger
812
111. Lines of Dunkirk Fishing Ketch
818
lia. Dunkirk Fishing Ketch
818
118. Gravelines Lugger
814
114. Sail-plan of Boul<^e Herring Drifter
814
115. Lines of Boulogne Herring Drifter
815
116. Chasse-Mar^ of St. Malo
816
117. Lines of St Malo Chasse-Mar^
817
118. Fishing Lugger of Equihen
818
119. Lines of Equihen Fishing Lugger
819
190. Sardine Fishing Lugger of the Coast of Brittany
821
121. Sardine Lugger of the Vend^
822
122. Lines of Sardine Lu^er of the Vend^
828
123. Barqnentine of St. Malo
825
124. Breton Fishing Schooner
827
125. Egyptian Dahabeiah
826
126. Lines of St. Malo Barquentine
827
127. Galician Sardine Boat
828
128. Lines of Breton Fishing Schooner
829
129. Sail-plan of Marseilles Pilot-boat
880
180. Lines of Marseilles Pilot-boat
881
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FORE AND AFT
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
THE appearance of this present volume fulfils a
promise which was made a couple of years ago.
In the last chapter of my Sailing Ships and taeir
Story the reader may remember that I remarked that
"it would be quite impossible here to trace in such
complete detail the history and development of the
fore-and-afters as we have done of the larger sailing
ships; that, indeed, demands a separate volume to
itself." It is now propose^ within the compass of
the following pages to attempt to perform on behalf
of the fore-and-afters that which I essayed to do
for the full-rigged ship and her near relatives. For
such a task needs the scope of more than a few
pages in order that full justice may be done to
the subject. In the previous volume the merest
outline had to suffice for the reader's interest, for
in covering so lar^e an area as the history of every
kind of sailing-ship that had evolved during a
Eeriod of six thousand years there remained to me
ttle enough opportunity of dealing adequately with
that rig isuiidi torday exists in far greater numbers
tbffliihe.§quare-saU rig.
Whilst it is true that the steamship and motor-
propelled vessels are increasing as the square-rigged
ship is disappearing, the fore-and-aft is the o^y*
kin<^ of sftihng craft that continues to multiply, and
B
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18 INTRODUCTION
that irrespective altogether of what the motor or
steam-engine may be doing. For to the fisherman, «
the pilot, the yachtsman, and to many a coaster
and inland trader the fbre-and-after helongs exdusiyfly.
Sometimes she is nowadays fitted with an auxiliary
motor engine, but oftener she is without so useful
an accessory. The important fact remains that if
you were to count up all the sailing craft of the
world you would find that an overwhelming pro-
portion of these are rigged fore-and-aft fashion and
do not carry even so much as one square-sail to set
when running free.
That being so, it is but fair that the origin and
evolution of the fore-and-aft rig should have its fiill
meed of consideration; and it is hoped that the
following pages may be not less interesting to the
lover of ships and the sea than were the chapters on
the history of the larger kind of sailing-ship designed
not for coasting or inland waters but for traversing
the vast expanse of the ocean.
It is permissible to emphasise at the outset more
particularly the aim which has here been in view and
the method which has been employed. This volume
is neither an attempt to record the peculiarities of
every conceivable kind of sailing craft in all the
comers of the four continents, nor is it a mere history
of yachting. What has been aimed at has been,
firstly, to find out, as far as the most patient and
extensive historical research will permit, the actual
beginnings of the rig, and then to show in chrono-
logical order the general manner in which during the
ensuing centuries this went on developing, and how
it became modified to suit particular and local pur-
poses, but with especial regara to the manner in which
it has been employed over the seas of northern
Europe.
For years the desire to get at the heart of this
matter has haunted me, and it is only after the most
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INTRODUCTION 19
diligent research amon^ existing record3 and the
examination of pictorial reDresentations by contem-
porary craftsmen, after following up all sorts of
clues in the most out-of-the-way places, and, finally,
after stud3ang practically every printed book on a
marine subject firom the first days of printing to the
present day, to say nothing of imiumerable manu-
scripts, prints, and so on, that at last it was possible
to piece together the scattered fragments into one
coherent whole. This was preceded by a familiarity
of handling fore-and-aft rigged vessels, an experience
that began in boyhood and still continues. But in
order to leave no loophole for error, after the libraries,
museums, and art galleries of England had been
ransacked, and its various kinds of fore-and-aft
rigged craft studied, the same experience was gone
throuffh in that foreign country which saw the origin
and me earliest developments of the rig. We must
recollect that about the close of the sixteenth century
the Netherlands were becoming wonderfully wealthy
and powerful on the sea. Thus during the next
century they were the great ocean-carriers, the
"waggoners of the sea," as they were called. Thus
followed also those three great Anglo-Dutch naval
wars. Living so close to the North Sea, having
always to fight for the security of their land against
the encroachment of the waves, intersected with
innumerable canals and waterways, with the mighty
Scheldt and Maas rivers running through their midst,
with the expansive Zuyder Zee on one side of the
land and the still vaster North Sea on the other,
it would have been surprising had not the Dutch
become sailor-men. And wheo. in addition they
became colonists and obtained valuable interests in
India, Java, and America, a still keener interest in
shipping and its manifold details became essential.
It was primarily owing to the shallowness and the '
narrowness of 1:^ national waterways, to the absence
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20 INTRODUCTION
of., good roads Sqi carr]rin£ txAffic, that the fore-and-
aft rig developed so wondrously in Holland, The
happy combination of an ancient sea-instinct, to-
gether with that potent cause of invention — neces-
sity — brought about in the Low Countries the origin
of the yacht, the fishing-smack, and the familiar pilot-
boat.
Therefore, in order to supplement the many data
• which England afforded, a lengthy visit was paid to
Holland; and that this might be done thoroughly
from one end to the other, it was undertaken in the
only manner in which such an investigation can rightly
be made. It was not to be a land voyage, but by sea
/ and river and canal. Starting out in a Uttle fore-and-
aft rigged yacht of firom four to five tons from South-
ampton Water, with a crew of two all-told, consisting
of the writer and the artist who has made many of
the illustrations in this book, the English shore was
followed to the eastward. After putting in at New-
haven and Ramsgate, a course was set for Calais ; from
there sailing along the French and Belgian coasts to
Ostend, to the new port of Zeebrugge, and across the
wide estuary of the Scheldt to the Dutch port of
Flushing, in the island of Walcheren. Thence still
pursuing our way northwards, sometimes by canal,
sometimes along the bold tidal rivers bearing their
heavy traffic, consisting of every species of fore-and-
aft rig, we eventually arrived at Amsterdam and the
Zuyder Zee. With the details of so interesting a
cruise one need not weary the reader : perhaps he may
have the opportunity of reading the account in another
volume at some other date. Everywhere pencil and
camera were employed to gather in from passing craft
the most fascinating data connected with the Dutch
craft. Ashore the various ports and havens were
scrutinised so as to study the rig of these sailing
vessels, and their skippers and crews were asked to
supplement what was not immediately manifest. For
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INTRODUCTION 21
weeks and weeks we sailed in their company ; we saw
how they employed devices unknown to our own sea-
men ; we noted them in fair weather and foul ;
observed them tide-cheating, "trekking," or running
in and out of crowded locks with that dexterity which
is peculiar to the Dutch sailor-man. We went on
board them and examined their gear, talked with
the men who built them, wandered in and out of their
shipbuilding yards, gathered scraps of information,
now firom the skipper of a paviljoen-porrij now from
a haven-meester, a yachtsman, or an antiquary.
But besides all this we endeavoured to ransack
also every picture, print, book, or other evidence in
every museum, library, and picture gallery which the
various inland and sea-ports contained and were likely
to throw an illuminating light on the origin and
history of the fore-and-aft rig. In short, the most
meticulous care was expended, regardless of time or
expense, so that at last a satisfactory and reliable
investigation might have been made. Armed with
this knowledge, still further researches were under-
taken afterwards in England, with fortunate success
to crown one's efforts. Whatever value all this ex-
penditure of time, labour, and travel may possess, is to
be found in the following pages. It was essential that
the journey of inquiry should have been undertaken in
this manner, for many of the most interesting sources
of information were right off the tourist track and,
because of their island situation, inaccessible except by
water. It was further impossible, also, to get an ade-
quate idea of the Dutch craft (which of all kinds of
ships have altered least from their origin centuries ago
to the present day) except by sailing in their company
day after day, mile after mile. But all this was only
part of the whole scheme which aimed at settling once
and for all some of the wrong impressions which exist
regarding the history of the particular class of vessel
to which we are devoting our attention.
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22 INTRODUCTION
On another page the English-built Mary the
second will be found reproduced exactly as she was
sketched under way by a contemporary artist of her
owner, Charles II. ; whilst the striking frontispiece to
this book represents an attempt to bring her to life
again, and to fire the reader's imagination so that
he may see her as she appeared in the seventeenth
century with her royal owner on board. This has
been done by one of the ablest of our modem marine
artists, Mr. Charles Dixon, working from existing his-
torical details which may be regarded as absolutely
authentic.
The first Mar y (to which the second English-built
Mary bore resemblance) represents a landmark in the
history of nU British shippings and is especially of
interest to yachtsmen in all parts of the world, for she
introduced an altogether novel type of craft to our
country, and set going the beginnings of the entirely
new sport of yachting, a sport that is happily now
spreading not merely througnout the British Isles, but
to all sea-girt civiUsed countries of the world. Since it
is to Britain secondly, and primarily to Holland, that
this sport is due, we cannot exaggerate the import-
ance which this vessel bears in regard to historical
progress.
^ But although necessarily in this volume the pride
of place belongs to Holland and Britain, yet it is not
exclusively to these countries that the fore-and-after
belongs, as many of the illustrations will show. The
North Sea, the Baltic, and the English Channel will
ever be associated with this rig especially. For these
waters where harbours are many, whose narrow, and
frecjuently difficult, entrances need handiness in the
saihn^-ship, there is nothing so suitable as the rig we
are discussing. That is the especial claim which such
craft possess : that is the reason why they have received
so much encouragement. Plenty of fore-and-aft craft
have crossed the Atlantic, and some have even voyaged
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INTRODUCTION 28
to Africa, India, Australia, and elsewhere. But such
voyages are not so suited to these craft as for the fuU-
riggei ship with her boomless square-sails and manifold
conveniences for diminishing that injurious chafing
which comes from the continuous rolling during a
protracted cruise over the waves of the ocean. Able
to go through weather which many a fore-and-after
could not look at, majestic and lovely as the full-
rigffed ships are to the eye, yet handy they are not,
and they are ill-suited for the special work of the cutter
or yawl, a larffe part of whose time is spent dodging in
and out of harbours or turning to windward in confined
channels. A square-rigged ship, for instance, would be
as absurd on Dutch waterways as a hotter or hoogarts
would look trying to cross the Atlantic. It is, now-
ever, essential to bear in mind that in the world's vast
scheme of division of labour there is a necessity for
both forms of craft
After we have shown, then, the important debt-
which the fore-and-aft ri^ owes to Holland, we shall
proceed to see how this ng took root in England, and
thence we shall be able to witness it developing not
merely in the yacht, but in the Bevenue-cutter and the
fishing-smack, and the vessels of the sixteenth, seven-
teentn, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
Yawls, sloops, cutters, lifeboats, boms, catboats, pinks,
klipper-aaks, boiers, schokkers, botters, hoogarts, tjalks,
. kubboats, fishing craft, pilot craft, market barges,
cargo-carriers. Admiralty sailing craft, hoekers, galleots,"
Dutch, English, French, Belgian, Danish, Swecush, and
Norwegian craft, Yorkshire cobbles, and Mediterranean
lateeners, whale-boats and motor-schooners — all these
we shall investigate for the purpose of witnessing the
manner in which the rig has developed. And in ad-
dressing myself to that same appreciative public who
were kind enough to welcome Saiting Ships and their
Story ^ I am in hopes that they may find once more
that an increased familiarity with the evolution of the
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24 INTRODUCTION
craft which we all love so well may have the reverse
effect of that spirit which breeds contempt through
closer association. To me personally the joy and
delight of voyaging in any kind of sailing vessel is
intensified a thousandfold if I am able to know her
ancestry, and I cannot think that it is otherwise
with my brother sailing-men, whether professional or
amateur.
Two of the most romantic considerations in the
world are found in history and the ship : so that when
these two are united we have afforded a subject that is
magnetic in its power to attract. The man who is
genuinely fond of ships aspires to know more about
them. He is not content to rest satisfied with the
knowledge as to the way they are handled : he wants
to know something of what may be termed the philo-
sophy of the ship. He longs to get right back to first
ship-principles, and to ascertain the forces that have
been at work to model, if not the ocean-carrier, at any
rate the smaller type of craft in which he has sailed for
so long a time. He is anxious to know what sort of
craft were those prototypes, how they were rigged,
whether they could get to windward, what they looked
like under way, and so on. It is to such inquiries as
these that this volume comes with a desire to give
answer. Even to the man who does not put to sea
in his own craft, but for all that has an affection for
the things of the sea, perhaps it may not be unwelcome
to learn how the little sailing vessel which he sees
bobbing up and down in the bay can trace her pedigree
back through the ages of the bluff-bowed sloops, and
even to the sixteenth-century Dutchmen.
Surely it can be no lost labour to foster an in-
terest in — even a real love for — ships of any kind.
There is nothing healthier both for mind and body,
there is no pastime, no form of recreation which is at
once so instructive and so beneficial to character as
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INTRODUCTION 25
the sport of ships. The more you learn about them the
more you become appalled at your own ignorance, and
so proportionately you press on to get acquainted with
the things that you long to know. Added to this must
be borne in mind the fact that we are an island race,
and that it is a matter of honour that we should hand
on the great sea-tradition to posterity, and not suffer it
to die out in an age of excessive comfort and luxury.
Many people are tied to town life by the claims of their
daily work, gladly though they would, if they could,
rush off for the greater part of the year to go wandering
round the coast in some sort of vessel But next to
such a possibility the best means of keeping up an
interest in seafaring matters consists in reading about
them, so that the imagination is fired and the progress
of maritime matters is not allowed to be regarded as
something that does not matter, something belonging
to other people's business, but becomes a persomQ
matter and one in which all who are proua of the
name British feel deeply concerned:
It has been well said that in these days of mechani-
cal propulsion the only educated sailors who still exist
are yachtsmen, and it is with a desire of interesting
them and their younger brothers that I have written
the following pages. For in the matter of ships there
is a common meeting - ground for enthusiasts irre-
spective of ages. We need not bring up that old
dictum about Waterloo and the playing fields of Eton,
but many an embryonic admiral has learnt some of his
first and most valuable sea lessons from an acquaint-
ance made with small sailing craft. Prior to that some
stirring sea-picture or sea-story had captivated his
imagination and sent his thoughts to work in a new
world. To-day there is so little in common between
the ships of war and the ships of pleasure that it is
useless to attempt a comparison, but what is possible
is to capture that enthusiasm by means of the printed
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26 INTRODUCTION
book and spirited illustration, an enthusiasm which,
after it is once infused, never dies, but is presently led
into one of the three channels of the navy, the mer-
chant marine, or the sport of yachting.
It is hoped that these pages may do something to
inspire such an enthusiasm or to invigorate it where it
already exists.
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CHAPTER II
THE ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
IF we were to examine all the different rigs of the
different ships of the world, of whatsoever size and
nationality, we should find that they divide themselves
broadly into two separate classes. Firstly, there are^
the ships which are with yards and rectangular canvas, or,
as we should say, with squMe-saUs; and secondly, there
are those, usually smaller cra RTwhich are rigged fore-
and-aft wise^-lTharis to say, instead of having their
sails set athwart the mast they are afftxed longitudin-
ally, in line with the keel« .
To the former class belong of course the fuU-rigged
ships and barques. To the latter belong the sloops,
cutters, ketches, yawls, and luggers of the coasting
trader, the fisherman, the pilots, and the yachts. And of
course there are, as in other spheres of activity, certain
compromises between the two distinct classes. The
topsail schooner, for example, is, strictly speaking,
neither a square-rigged ship nor a fore-and-after, but
possesses features akin to both. ' So, in like manner,
might we afHrm of the barquentine and brigantine. In
the history of sailing rigs the square-sail comes first.
It was the original form of the sail-plan adopted by
the Egjrptians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the
Romans ; it was, no doubt, if only records existed to
demonstrate the supposition, the actual rig of the first
man who ever dared to set a sail on his frail and primi-
tive boat or ship.
In another volume I have already shown, from un-
impeachable evidence, that the large square-sail was
27
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28 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
employed on the ancient ships of Egypt not only for
navigating the Nile, but eren for sailing in the Red
Sea. For deep-sea work there is, of course, nothing to
equal it; and even when light winds occur, and the
heave of the ocean's bosom causes so much damage to
gear and spars and canvas through incessant chafing, it
IS the square-sails which sufier less than the fore-and-
aft cut-sails. There was also a special reason why the
large square-sail should be retained for so many centuries
in the navigation of the national river of Eg5rpt. The
stream flows out in a northerly direction, yet the pre-
vailing wind blows from north to south. Consequently,
though sail and mast could be lowered and the oars-
men set to work when bound down-stream, the return
journey could be made with the utmost ease. The
craft was sure of a favourable breeze from due aft, and
there was little need to worry about the possibilities of
having to close-haul. The simplicity of using the square-
sail for running before the wind, and, by the employ-
ment of this form of sail, never having to ff;[be, caused
the rig to be invaluable. Even in bad weatherTin quite
a small craft I have run for many miles in comfort
under a square-sail dead before the wind, knowing
that whereas the fore-and-aft canvas needs immediate
attention everv time a gyt)e occurs, the square-sail will
look after itself and accommodate its nature, no matter
whether the wind comes from the starboard or port
quarter.
But nevertheless, as every sailing-man knows, or as
every experimenter will quickly discover for himself,
the square-sail has its limitations no less than its virtues^
It will not hold so good a wind as the fore-and-after : in
other words, the square-rigged vessel will not sail as
close to the wind by at least one if not two points.
Thus in the case of a ship beating to windward, the
square-rigger has further to go than the fore-and-after.
Now, in such confined waters as rivers this unhandiness
is a serious matter, and has, indeed, to be remedied. It
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 29
was after the art of tacking or beating to windward had
been discovered that ^ the square-sail underwent certain
modifications, which were to bring about what we know
as the fore-and-aft rig. So the Egyptians, becoming^
weary, no doubt, of eternally rowing their craft down'
the Nile against the northerly wind, at length sought
some means of harnessing that same wind. By gomg
in a zigzag fashion from side to side between the two
banks of the river they discovered that progress could
be made without continuous rowing. For a time the
method was not wholly satisfactory, because the^square-
sail was still used in its original shape. But presently
it was foimd that by tilting the yanl so that the peak
of the sail pointed much nigher and well above the
mast: by bringing the foot also down almost to the
deck, a much better effect was produced. Forward of
the mast there now projected a certain amount of
canvas, and whilst the actual cut and shape of the sail,
its yard as well as its boom, were retained, yet the real
character of the sail was totally different. Bear in mind
that the Egjrptian sail of the Nile ships was square, but
much wider tnan it was deep. Imagine in your mind,
or, better still, depict the same for yourself by taking
paper and pencil, a rectangular expanse of canvas about
three times wider than it was deep ; place this across the
n^ast, not. horiT^nnt^Hy, bu^ JP ^ii^h a rpannpr that the
yard and boom being parallel to eachx>ther they make*^
with the deck an angle of about 45 degrees, and you
have roughly the sail-plan of the first fore-and-aft ri^ed.
vessel
With this improvement the Egyptians can nos^^t
t o windwa rd. In itself it does not appear to be a vital
change, but the alteration of the angle which the boom
and yard make with the mast or deck is something
revolutionary in character. For a new power has been
put into the sailing-ship ; she can do something which
she has never before attempted successfully. The
Egjrptian nuggar of to-day has her sail-plan exactly in
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80 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
accordance with the diagram which you have just drawn
on your paper, and is still to be seen on the waters
of Egypt below the third cataract, though it is being
slowly replaced by the all-prevailing lateen. Practically
the sail is what we should call nowadays a balance-lug,
which many a yachtsman places in his sailing dinghy
or canoe.
But this useful modification, this new form of sail,
was not to remain the exclusive possession of Egypt.
As the influence of Egypt spread to the eastward, so
this form of sail, together with even the Egyptian form of
hull, followed and continued to be employed. Just how
old this ancient balance-lug is no one can say* but! it
is at least several centuries older than the birth of our
Lord.
The accompanying illustration (Fig. (), which is
taken from an old Dutch book of travels published in
the year 1598, shows a Javanese vessel with the Egyp-
tian influence all over her. Not merely the shape of
the hull, but the sails are directly traceable to the
customs which obtained on the Nile. The two sails
show that the Eg3rptian nuggar influence was accepted
without question and allowed to remain undeveloped,
except that two sails are employed instead of one. jBut
apart from that, here is the very early form of the primi-
tive fore-and-aft rig: the tilted square-sail utilised to
give to the ship increased handiness and greater ability
for sailing in narrow and confined channels. The peak
is high, the foot low, and yet the sails are shallow and
wide.
That is the first sta^e in the inquiry on which we
are focussing our attention. As all civilisation sprang
from the East, as the ship herself, and even the s(]^uare-
sail came from that quarter of the globe, so also did the
fore-and-aft rig in embryo. It was an Oriental and not
a Northern development at the first, although, as we
shall see later on m this book, it was the Northern
nations that were to take it in hand, improve it, and
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 81
make it specially serviceable for local uses. Now this
nuggar-lu^ was itself capable of improvements, and the
lines on which the sail became modified may be seen in
the familiar sailing craft of the Red Sea, the Persian
Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. For the dhow is the lineal
descendant of the nuggar, and especially so in the
matter of rig. Her sail is called a lateen, and embodies
the nuggar-lug, but the idea has been considerably
developed so that it changes from a rectangular shape
to triangular. Although the yard is retained, it is
made of immense length, and Mr. Warington Smyth
mentions that he remembers measuring the mainyard
of a dahabia and finding it 184 feet long. But with
this increased length of yard the boom disappears, the
sail becomes peaked even higher still, and it also be-
comes deeper instead of the shallow feature of the
nug^ar-lug. Furthermore, instead of only a small
E)rtion of the sail extending forward of the mast, the
teen allows quite a considerable part of its area to
be there.
Thus the gaiassas and dahabias of Egypt, the dhow
and baggaras of the Arabs, the gehazi of Zanzibar, the
pattamar of Bombay are, next to the nuggar, the world's
earliest fore-and-aft rigged vessels. Omitting small
differences as to detail, we may conveniently refer to
the rig common to them all as the dhow, and to the
sail as the lateen. Now, in spite of the advance of
years, this lateen-rig has continued in the East, and
still remains, not only east of Suez, but in the Medi-
terranean. When the Venetians, the Genoese, the
Spaniards, and the Portuguese became so civilised that
by the time of the early Middle Ages they were the
greatest maritime nations of Europe, their ships were
rigffed according to the historic Mediterranean custom
wim enormous spreading Jateen-sails, triangular in
shape and very highly peaked.. The Vikings of the
North, on the contrary, were all this time emplojdng
the square-sail exclusively, thanks, as I firmly believe,
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82 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
to the advent of early Phoenician voyagers centuries
before. But since the Mediterranean was situated in
such close proximity to early civilisation, since it actu-
ally received into it the very waters of the Nile, and,
further, since its many harbours and land-locked creeks
were peculiarly fitted for the dhow-rig, it was but
natural that the lateen-sail should become established
as the standard rig. It was still further encouraged by
the retention from the times of the ancient Greeks and
Romans of that long, low-lying craft we call the galley,
which in itself is a peculiarity and a characteristic feature
of those southern waters. The galley was primarily
made for speed and to be rowed, but with a fair breeze
the canvas was set. Although for some centuries the
S(juare-sail was retained, yet about the year 1500 it was
discarded and the Oriental rig used instead, because
for her the high-peaked lateen was especially suitable.
As we can see for ourselves from existing pictures
of early masters, when any sail was set at all the craft
were literally smothered in canvas, and with the small
displacement which these vessels possessed, with their
lightness and great length, their speed before the wind
must have been something enormous.
■^ And even when the Venetians, Genoese, the
Spaniards, and the Portuguese took to building big^
bellied cargo craft, and left the galley type merely for
warlike purposes, the Jateen-sau was still employed.
No matter whether the merchant craft carried one or /
three masts they were fitted with the triangular lateen
and not the square-saiL Thus it was that Moorish
pirates, Italian cargo-carriers, or Spanish galleys swore
by the excellencies of the lateen fore-and-aft rig. It
spread everywhere in the south, and still prevails even
to this day. Even the Swiss lakes retain it, as the
tourist is well aware. The resemblance of this lateen-
rig to the Arabian dhows is very marked. But actual
experience shows that these Swiss craft embody all the
disadvantages of the dhow-rig, for the high peak whilst
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 88
of unquestionable benefit in light winds, is the most
unsuitable of all in sudden squalls. These Swiss ships
have wonderful reputations for "ghosting," yet when
those sudden and hard winds blow down on to the
surface of the lake from the mountains above, these
sails are positively dangerous. But for all that, so
powerful is the conservative spirit of sailors, whether
on sea or fresh water, that the rig has never been
discarded.
To-day the lateen-rig is to be found from one end of
the Mediterranean to the other. You will note all sorts
of modifications, you may notice three masts instead of
one, and even in the " one-sticker '' you will occasionally
find that, not content with its lateen canvas projecting
both forward and abaft the mast, other sails have been
sometimes added. A moderate instance of this is to be
found in such a craft as the Marseilles fishing-boat, which
has added a foresail. The accompanying photograph
taken from a picture in the Boijman's Museum, Rotter-
dam, by Jan Abrahams Beerstraten, painted in 1654,
shows an Italian harbour with a vessel so rigged running
before the wind. The most extreme example, how-
ever, is to be found in that singularly curious craft of
Portugal known by the name of the muletta. But
with each of these we shall deal later. Our immediate
object is to insist, that-the-^fiorerandtaft rig as we have
it in northern Eiurope is nf muoh Ufpr Hpvp>lnpnn#>nf
as compared with the Mediterranean^ lateen. In its
original purity the latter is just a lar^e triangular sail,
of which a good portion is forward of the mast. The
addition of jib ana staysail, of topsail, of even " water-
sails " as well ; the multiplication of masts so that one
or two of them may carry square-rigged canvas — all
such things as these are accretions and do not properly
belong to the native Mediterranean rig. Rather they
have been adopted owing to the northern influence
exercised through the medium of English, Dutch, or
French ships voyaging so frequently backwards and
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84 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
forwards to the Middle Sea. It is, indeed, quite amus-
ing to notice that whereas both the square rifir and the
fore-and-aft came to northern Europe entirely owing
to the Mediterranean ships, yet the former, at a later
date, actually had a most potent influence in fashioning
the southern rigs as we know them to-day. Those
curious additions of triangular headsails and topsails
actually give to the ships of the south the character of
a mongrel. They have an effect about as incongruous
as those offences to the eye when one occasionally
espies coming down the main street of some old town
of the Netherlands a Dutch woman clad not merely in
the attractive costume of North Holland, but capped
by a black bonnet and strings of the dowdiest nine-
teenth-century cut placed over the national headgear.
It is essential to our study that we should possess
some general idea of the different varieties of the
lateen-rig of the south before we proceed to study the
manner in which the Mediterranean cast its spell
over the north. Our task, however, is not by any
means exclusively confined to the lateeners, but rather
to show how, given a certain theme, different nations
in different periods have elaborated the same. If,
then, we run very briefly through the modifications
of the descendant of the nuggar lateen-sail, and in the
following chapter proceed to show the different aims
which actuated those dwellers by the side of the
North Sea, we shall be enabled to see the intimate
connection which exists between, say, the Lowestoft
drifter of to-day and the Nile nuggar both of the
present and the past. In the illustration of the
Marseilles fishing-boat which is given in our final
chapter it will be seen that the raking mast of the
Oriental craft is retained, and that the headsail is not
set on a bowsprit; but among the Mediterranean
trading coasters a bowsprit is common enough
together with a topmast and topsail.
If we examine some of those interesting prints of
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3 I^
1 ^
2 H
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4' i
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 85
the sixteenth century we shall find frequently a
species of Mediterranean galley called the tartana,
and the accompanying illustration (Fig. 2) will show
that she carried a couple of lateen-sails. The galle-
asses were a later development of the galley, the
aim being to preserve the handiness of the latter, jret
to combine some of the better sea-keeping qualities
Fig. 2.— Mbditbbbakban Tabtaka.
She has a couple of the Bouthern lateen-sails, and on each sail has a brailinff-
line for shortening in canvas when necessary. (Taken from Ohapmairs
ArckUedura Navalu.)
of the bigger-bodied ship. Contemporary illustrations f>^
of the Spanish Armada show such eran; rigged with
three masts, on each a lateen, but some of the craft
have their foremast rigged entirely with a couple of
square-sails, the two other masts having each a lateen.
In the nineteenth century sometimes the lateener,
not content with carrying a jib and bowsprit, added
to herself also a square topsiul and a lateen mizzen,
Bven when the southern ship had so forgotten her
national characteristics as to rig herself* after the
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86 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
manner of a northern brigantine, yet she would
sometimes retain the loftily peaked yard and sail of
the lateen on the mizzen.
the lateen of the Orient tends to become practically
a rectangular shape^ the Spanish fishing craft retain
their stru^tly triangular form. But it is the Portuguese
moletta or muletta which, though a lateener by descent
and nationality, does her very best to disguise herself
from any other vessel afloat in any part of the world.
Looked at for the first time, it seems impossible to
place her in any category of sailing craft. Her sail-
plan seems less like that of any rational vessel than a
terrible nightmare of a geometrician. Everywhere it
seems all angles and squares ; the number of straight
lines is bewildering and apparently utterly meaning-
less. You would put her down at the best as a freak
of an exceptional type and past the wit of any sailing-
man to comprehend, let alone the average la3anan
accustomed only to pleasure craft or the picture of
full-rigffed ships. But it is when we begin to examine
the muletta that we find out her true nature. In the
main she is still a lateener, as her biggest sail shows.
Forward she carries those square " water-sails " which
belonged to the first full-rigged ships of the Middle
Ages, and handed down to us through the Tudor
and Elizabethan periods even to the early part of the
nineteenth century, when our sailor-men used to call
them "Jimmy Green's." Right aft a jigger projects
over the stem something after the manner of a
West of England lugger, and thus additional after-
canvas can be set. Forward of the lateen a staysail is
set, which reaches from the top of the mast to the
bowsprit or sometimes to the stem-head. Forward of
that, again, comes the jib, and besides the lower
water-sail there is also an upper small square-sail which
extends from a small foremast with considerable rake
forward, after the manner, and a survival of, of the
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 87
classical artemon which existed even in St Paul's
time.
What is the meaning of all this complication, do
you ask ? The answer is very simple. These mulettas^
are employed in the trawling industry, and the in-
tention is to balance the sail of the bows against that
of the stem, so that they may easily regulate the
speed of the ship when the trawl is down. These
beamy, black-hulled craft are about fifty feet in length
and carry a crew of ten men, their home being up
the Tagus. The muletta is evidently very proud of
her ancestry, for she still paints eyes on her bows,
still fits those curious spikes forward above the water- -
line, features which are curious but interesting
survivals from the time when the Roman galleys
used to ram each other on the waters of the Medi-
terranean. The smallest of these craft measure^
forty-five feet long, and the largest have sixty feet,
with ample beam. The greatest number of crew does ^
not exceed eighteen men, but excessive as that amount
of hands seems to us they are necessary when so many
different sections of canvas have to be handled, and -
a sudden squall requires all these amazing kites to be
got in smartly. The lines of the muletta are not
less curious than her rig, for instead of having a keel
coming down lower than the hull, the converse is the
case and her bottom is quite hollow, so that when she
is beached she can take the ground without heeling.
Furthermore, when she heels under her canvas she
thus has a greater draught listed than when exactly
upright. The fishing is done with a kind of beamless
trawl, ropes from the net being fastened to the
projecting spars seen at either end of the craft, the
latter being allowed to drift sideways, her after-sails
balancing her head -sails, and a leeboard controls her
drifting to some extent. The chief cruising ground
of these craft is in the vicinity of the Burlings, a group
of rocks lying off the Portuguese coast near the bar
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88 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
of the Tagus. The spikes, though chiefly ornamental,
have their uses, for tiiey are fitted with fairleads for
the sheets of the water-sails, and are sometimes also
used for canying creels of fish.
But it is when we pass eastwards to the waters of
the Adriatic that we come to another development of
the nuggar-rig. We have now not the Lateen of
Spain or Portugal, but the lugsail, that is so typical
of Italy, which Turner and a thousand other artists
have miade so familiar to us in their brightly coloured
paintings of the Adriatic. The fore-and-aft rig may
best be studied by confining our attention to the two
main types of craft, called respectively the trabaccolo
and the braffgozzi. The decorations, striking and con-
trasting in their hues of the sails, can be left out of our
immediate consideration, for these are but details, and
serve only to confuse the study of the rig itself. The
'^trabaccolo is to be met with in most of the Adriatic
ports, brilliant in paint and sails, though the latter are
much better cut than a casual critic misht suspect
The trabaccolo is rigged with a standing Tug on each
of her two masts and a jib on her bowsprit. Occa-
sionally the mainmast carries a gaff mainsail instead of
the lug, but this is not frequent. Usually painted
some combination of yellow and crimson, the sails are
sometimes left white. Their ground tackle consists of
enormous grapnels and hempen cables. The jib is cut
very low, and set on a bowsprit steeved high. These
ships have a bold sheer, are almost flat-bottomed, and,
as m the Marseilles fishing and pilot craft, the rudder
descends some distance below the keel. Good sea-
boats, weatherly, they carry the cargoes of the Adriatic
up and down the coast. The sail-spread is not exces-
sive, but the lines of the vessel herself are beautiful,
giving with the high bow and the rounded stern a
singularly able ship, suitable for the heavy blows and
seas for which the Adriatic is famous.
^The braggozzi rig is another type of the standing lug
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-ANDAFT RIG 89
carrying two masts, whose home port is Chio^gia* In
size the braggozzi is inferior when compared with many
of our British fishing craft. She is a kind of distant
cousin of some of our fishing luggers, but the foremast
and foresail of the Italian are much smaller than the
main. Beamy and bluflf-bowed, with an enormous
rudder which can be triced up when approaching
shallow water, the mainmast is stepped well aft. The
braggozzi, with its two luffsails, both of which are*^
distinctly well cut, is an3rtning but a slow craft in a
breeze, and can hold a good wind. Flat-bottomed,
with a gracefully curved bow, somewhat heavily built,
especially by the stern, they are among the most
interesting of all developments of the fore-and-aft rig.
The Italian lugsail has also spread to the waters
of Greece, where in ancient times the old galleys were
never rigged except with square-sails. But in spite of
the fact that the lugsail has much its own way m the
near East (and this, as the legitimate descendant of the
lateen, is but natural), yet it is strange to find that in
Turkish waters the spritsail — ^a distinctly northern and
Dutch-like rig — ^should have become so conspicuous a
favoiurfite. Thus there is, by the most curious coinci-
dence, a kinship between the modern Thames barge
and the coaster of the Dardanelles, although the latter
carries a couple of square-sails on his mast as well.
The adoption of the spritsail arose through the facility
which the latter possesses of being quickly brailed
when one of those not infrequent squalls peculiar to
the Mediterranean comes rushing down on the sailing-
ship. And it was almost certainly from the ships of
the Netherlands during the seventeenth century, when
the Dutch were at their highest point of maritime
power, that this spritsail plan was introduced into a
comer of the world where we should least have
expected to have encountered it. It is only when
we realise how far-travelled were the Dutch "wag-
goners of the sea'* in those days, how great a trade
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40 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
they carried on by means of their ships between the
Low Countries and the Levant, that the explanation
becomes perfectly simple. Here was just the quarter
where the old Mahommedan galleys were wont to use
the ample canvas of the lateen, but its long yard and
its great expanse of sail-area made it an unwieldy
thing to handle in a squall or a hard blow. The
spritsail, on the contrary, could be brailed up both
quickly and effectively, and so it has continued.
After we have left the Mediterranean and pursued
our way eastwards to China, we are again confronted
with a strange surprise. For whilst the Egyptian
influence spread itself thither, and is to this dav but
_ thinlv veiled in the general lines of the Chinese junks,
yet the original square-sail of the Nile has, in Chinese
waters, become a lug of a most effective and serviceable
kind. Stiffened by battens, hoisted on a pole-mast,
bent to both yard and boom, kept to the mast by a
hauling parrel, fitted with topping-lifts on both sides
of the sau, the sail can be lowered instantaneously in a
squall, and it is the handiness of the Chinese rig which
is one of its greatest virtues. But it is curious to note
that Western influence again asserts itself to produce
another mongrel type, when we find some of the big
Chinese trawlers occasionally setting triangular stay-
sails between their two masts. And as the Italian
lugsails have spread to the Grecian Archipelago, so
the Chinese have cast their maritime influence over
the Malay seamen and elsewhere. Even many of our
British sailing canoes owe their rig entirely to the
ipgenuity of the Chinese junk.
\/ To sum up, then, we trace the origin of the fore-
and-aft rig to the days when Egypt was in its prime,
when the square-sail was the only rig that any nation
was acquainted with. Then, because the square-sail
had its own defects, which we have already noted, the
nuggar -lug followed. Thereafter the influence of
Egypt, even after the downfall of its djmasties, spread
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 41
both east and west. The Phoenicians and Greeks and
Romans held on to the square-sail for a time, but as
civilisation developed the seafaring man could not
remain altogether satisfied with his unhandy sail, so
the Mediterraneans changed it to the lateen, and, as
in Italy and elsewhere, later on to the standing lug.
The Chinese, however, attained their own kind of
civilisation at one leap, and have been content to
remain at that stage with conservative immobility;
yet so thorough and reasonable was it that it would
seem to have skipped from the square-sail to the lug
in one stage : to have seen at once that the square-sau
must develop forthwith into the lug without the inter-
mediate stage of the unwieldy lateen.
But our inquiry now is to follow up the devel-
opment of the fore-and-aft rig along that line of
civiUsation whose direction throughout history has
been roughly north and west : in other words, to the
English Channel, the North Sea, and across the
Atlantic to North America. To-day the Spanish
felucca still carries the triangular lateen-sail, just as
Spain always retained this sail even when its big
ocean-going vessels of three masts had all but the
bonaventure and the main-mizzen as well, when four
masts were carried, rigged with square - canvas and
yards. So, also, when the English and Dutch and
French began to build their deep-sea ships they still
followed the Mediterranean custom of setting a lateen
on the mizzen — doubtless for the reason that this form
of sail held a better wind and materially aided the
steering of these big, unhandy vessels — and it was
not until even the close of the eighteenth century
that the triangular lateen on our own British battle-
ships was so modified that it became the modem
spanker and driver of the full-rigged ship, and still
survives also on the barque. The process was quite
simple ; for that portion of the lateen-yard which
projected forward of the mizzen-niast was lopped off.
/^
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42 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
but already prior to that the forward portion of the
lateen-sail had been cut away entirely, leaving only
a quadrilateral sail-area on that mast. The point is^
an interesting one, and whenever we east our eyes
over those few surviving fuU-rigged ships or barques,
either in harbour or at sea, we can look astern and
remind ourselves that that spanker is but a modified
form of the old lateen of the Mediterranean, and so of
the Nile nuggar-lug.
Such briefly is the evolution of the fore-and-aft rig
of the south, and this must suffice by way of introduc-
tion before we proceed to see how the northerners
were to avail themselves of the heritage of those who
were fortunate enough to live in closer proximity to
the beginnings of civilisation and mental enterprise.
It would be interesting to follow the manifold develop-
ments which in all sorts of out-of-the-way places south
of the Equator have occurred in connection with the
lateen and lug; but that is not our purpose, and is
of only minor importance compared witn what has
happened in the northern hemisphere. The rulers of
the earth are the rulers of the sea, and always have
been, and no nation can be lord of the sea without
being responsible for much progress in the evolution
of the rigs and ships that traverse the sea. Whilst •
the Scandinavians have been responsible chiefly for
the propagation of the square-sail in northern waters
it is owing to England, Holland, France, and America
that the evolution of the fore-and-aft rig has made
such wonderful progress, and especially to the first
two.
It is now to be our pleasant task to look into this
progress, to examine one by one the alterations in rig,
the improvements in gear, and the general modifica-
tions which have occurred to the hulls in connection
with the evolution and spread of this rig. We shall
find the theme of unending interest alike for its history
and for its connection with the unremitting endeavours
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 48
of mankind to beat the sea at its own game. We shall
love oiu: ships none the less for knowing more about
their varied careers, but rather in learning to appreciate
some of the difficulties which our ancestors had to
contend with in order to bring about a satisfactory
rig, we shall find instruction for ourselves that may
not be utterly worthless when we turn our minds to
the direction of improving some feature of the modem
expression of the fore-and-aft rig.
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CHAPTER III
ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN NORTHERN
EUROPE
HAVING regard to the importance, the prevalence,
and the varieties of the fore-and-aft rig in Europe,
America, and elsewhere, it is unfortunate that no
trace can be found of any record of the date when
this rig was introduced into northern Europe. I have
myself made most careful and extensive researches, yet
have failed after years of inquiry to arrive at any definite
date, and it is extremely unlikely that we shall ever be
able to obtain such information. But the date at which
I have succeeded in fixing the actual existence of the
fore-and-aft rig is many years earlier than has been
assigned hitherto, and will be dealt with in due course.
And notwithstanding that there are gaps in the historical
sequence just at points where we can least afford to
dispense with them, yet in spite of this it will not be
impossible to place before the reader a clear idea of the
manner in which the transition occurred. With the
material that has happily been preserved to us, we
cannot remain entirely in ignorance of one of the most
notable evolutions in the history of human activity and
progress.
Now we must remember that in the north as in the ^
south of Europe the square-sail comes first in his-
torical sequence. In my previous history of the sailing-
ship, I suggested that the Scandinavians and Vikings
succeeded to this heritage from the Phoenicians, and
subsequent study of the subject has only tended to
strengthen my belief in this theory. From the North- J
44
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 45
men the Viking shape of hull, plus their square-sail, '
came to be the standard type of British craft. There •
were, of course, certain modifications as time went on,
and new ideas occurred ; but, roughly speaking, till the
time the Tudor dynasty arrived 5ie Viking square-sail
ship obtained in the fishing, the trading, and the fight-
ing craft of our country, and not merely here, but in
France, as well as the Low Countries. It was but
natural that this should be, for the Norsemen had over-
run the sea-girt countries of the German Ocean, and
not only dominated the very liberties of these nations,
but instilled into them the Scandinavian ideas in regard
to nautical matters, as the conquering race usually and
forcibly instructs its vanquished. The minds of those
dwellers by the sea were too little sharpened to allow
of much possibility of originality. They acted mostly
according to precedent, and continued to repeat types
rather than create new models. Thus it was, then,
that the Scandinavian ideal was followed. Thus itX
was, also, that for centuries the fore-and-aft rig never
reached, or at any rate was never accepted by, the sea-
men of northern Europe. They had — some of them —
seen the lateen when they voyaged to the Mediter-
ranean at the time of the Crusades or for purposes of
trade.
But seamen are the most conservative and obstinate^
human beings which ever trod the earth ; though, as
we know from existing records, the big ships of the
Mediterranean did most certainly impress them, yet
it ended at that. Doubtless their own craft they con-
sidered to be better for their own work; no doubt
they reasoned, in much the same manner as many a
fisherman or ship's hand argues to-day when they come
to see some strange rig for the first time, some im-
provement in gear, some novel form of hull. They
"didn't hold with it," just because it was something
which hitherto had never come within their experience.
The case is analogous to the fisherman and sailing
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46 ORIGIN OF THE FOREANDAFT RIG
coaster who a few years ago scorned and derided the
mere thought and mention of the marine motor. He
** didn't hmd ^ with that either, simply because he had
never had experience of them. But now that he finds
that a motor-auxiliary gets the fish home to port more
quickly, enables the topsail schooner to enter harbour
regardless of the tide and to make her trading voyages
with a regularity rivalled only by the small coasting
steamer, he has changed his mind. He recognises, in
spite of himself, the obvious advantages of this new
departure, for it gives to the sailing-ship an efficiency
ana a handiness which she never possessed before.
In much the same way the fore-and-aft rig had to
fight its way into adoption, yet it was more difficult,
because it had to fight against even more stubborn
ignorance than the motor engine has had to contend v^
with to-day. But then there occurred in Europe that
wonderful, far-reaching movement which we cail the
Renaissance. It sent a kind of electric shock through
the mediaeval intellects; it roused them from their
stupor, caused them to think for themselves instead
of ren^unin^ mere copyists, simply reproducers of
other people s ideas. It was a movement that pro-
duced results as soon as it got going. It did more:
it produced revolutions, not merely in politics and
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, with none of which our pre-
sent inquiry has to deal; but in art, in science, in
literature, using each of these words in its widest
sense, it inspired a breath of originality.
Take the subject with which we ai^ entirely con-^
cemed. Notwithstanding that the lateen had been in
use on the Mediterranean ships of the size large enough
to carry cargoes, usually (but not always) in conjunction
with the square-sail, yet until the time of the Renais-
sance, or just after, the galleys of Venice had con-
tinued to be rigged with square-sails in a manner almost
identical with tnat of the ancient galleys of Rome and
Greece. But, at any rate, by the time of the sixteenth
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 47
century, as we know from existing illustrations, the
lateen replaced the old square-sail, and became the re-
co^ised rig of the long ship or galley. It was thev^
spuit of the Renaissance, the desire for considering
things as they are and not as they have always been
regaraed, that caused the Venetian seaman to weigh
up the advantages respectively of the lateen and the
square-sail, just as later on he estimated the worth of
the former again, and decided in favour of the lug.
The Renaissance began in Italy, as was only natural^
seeing what its past history had been and having regard
to its progress in civilisation. But gradually this new
influence spread northwards, and in England as well as
in other countries it set afoot a new movement of
energy. Amongst other results it caused even sea-
faring men to pause and think independently. Was
the square-sail, after all, the most suitable rig for their
craft? They had never wondered before, but had
taken it for granted And the answer to their inquiry
is shown by their actual results. For they had room #
for their square-rigged craft differing but little from
the Viking vessels, and yet they wanted something
handier and more suitable for their rivers and inland
navigation. The fishermen and traders naturally still
held to the practice of using the square-sail, for the
reason that the North Sea, with its hard blows, its
general freedom, during most of the days of the year,
m>m soft, gentle winds, made the lateen-rig utterly
undesirable. It was quite out of the question. Un-
handy as the square-sail might be, especially when
entering harbour, yet it was a more seaworthy arrange-
ment.*
For inland sailing, or even for estuary work, for the
^ Leslie, in his Old Sea Wingi, Wayi, and Ward$t makes the snffgestion that
the origin of the cutter or sloop was when the lateener was noticeato have the
fore part of her sail abaok, and thus it may have occurred to some ancient
sailmaker to cat a lateen-sail verticallj by the mast, and so make two sails oat of
one, giving the fore part a sheet to itself. This, of coarse, is pore supposition,
bat it is a likely theory.
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48 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
wide reaches of the Scheldt, with its strong tides and
tricky channels, its shoals and sandbanks ever ready to
pick up an unhandy ship, there was certainly room for
a better rig, and so tentatively, at first, it was adopted.
Before long it was universally accepted for inland work,
for ocean-going ships' boats, and finally was used for
lar^ craft which made voyages across the North Sea
and down the English Channel and elsewhere. We
shall deal in detail presently with the earliest fore-and-
aft rigs that can be traced, but as to the question
/Whether the north Europeans created their fore-and-
[ aft rig out of their own brains by adapting the square-
/ sail of their sea-going craft to suit inland navigation,
t or whether they copied slavishly something seen in
the Mediterranean or Adriatic, cannot be asserted
definitely. What seems, from the evidence, most
plausible is that the suggestion and certain of the
details were obtained from the south, but that the
actual carrying out of the idea, together with most
of the methods employed, were of northern rather
than southern origin. To be precise, it would seem
that the seaman of the north realised that his present
ships were unhandy, but at the same time he realised
that the southern craft were to a certain extent
superior to his fishing "busses," because the former
could hold a better wind and were quicker in stays.
At the same time, that high peak and enormous length
of yard in the lateen convinced him that however suit-
able these might be in fair weather they were not
convenient for the north of Europe, and would be
highly dangerous in a strong tideway and a hard y
wmd. But, as all ships and aH rigs in all times and^
countries have ever been a compromise, so some happy
medium had to be discovered between the seaworthy
but clumsy square-sail on the one hand and the speedy
but dangerous lateen on the other. As an attempt
to weld into one conformation the virtues of these
two dissimilar t5rpes you have the fore-and-aft rig of
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 49
northern Europe to-day if you first make a certain
allowance for the modifications and improvements
which only can result from time and actual experi-
ence of the riff. The earliest date at which I nave
been able to nnd any evidence of the existence of
the fore-and-aft rig in northern Europe is the year ^
1475, and since the golden summer of the Renaissance ^
is covered by the dates 1450-1500, it is more than
likely that this year, which happens to be midway
between these two dates, was just about the time
when the new idea had its first opportunity of taking
definite shape. To sum up, then, it is reasonable to\r
suppose that the fore-and-idPt rig in northern Europe
was first introduced somewhere about the year 1475.
But it must not be supposed for one moment that
the square-sail was discarded by the fisherman or the
trader either then or centiuies rfter. We have shown
that in spite of its defects it was far too valuable to
be left ashore. A vessel that has to put to sea or
to lie to her nets in all kinds of weather must primarily
be not fast or handy but seaworthy. Thus the square- ,
sail still remained in the North Sea as it had done \
since the times when the Scandinavians first introduced
it there. We have ample pictorial evidence that the
herring - drifters of the Low Countries were rigged
with square-sails, and it is from these that the north
European fishing luggers evolved and continued until
the ketch-rigged smacks began to oust them. But
Scotland, Sussex, Comwall, and the Isle of Man in
the United Kingdom, and the chasse-mar^es of France
still bear witness to the fact that not all fishermen
prefer the cutter or ketch to the lugger. We alluded
{ust now to the common bond between the Oriental
ugger and the north European, but the resemblance
is not so much through the latter copying directly
from the former as owing to different seamen
arriving at the same conclusion in the presence of
similar problems. In other words, just as the
D
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50 ORIGIN OF THE FOREAND-AFT RIG
Eg3rptians found they required something better than
the square-sail, and evolved such a sail; and as the
Chinese also became possessors of the lugsail, so
the English, the Dutch, and the French &hermen
gradually effected — quite apart from the cutter, the
sloop, the ketch, the yawl, and the schooner rig — an
improvement on the square-sail which they caU the
lug; and since it preserves some of the defects and
some of the virtues of the square-sail, it is yet another
instance of the law of compromise.
If the reader will now turn to the illustration in
Fig. 8, after an artist of the name of Elandts, we will
begin to show the kinship between the square-sail and
lug of the North Sea nshermen before we return to
discuss in detail the evolution of that other branch of
the fore-and-aft rig which has amon^ its descendants
the cutters and ketches of to-day. The painting from
which this craft is drawn hangs in the Municipal
Museum at the Hague. The Hague picture itself
is not an original, but a copy made by Comelis
Elandts as far back as the year 1664. The original
was formerly in a Scheveningen church, but was found
to be in so bad a condition that it was impossible to
restore it, and was therefore copied as stated. The
subject, which was painted by a contemporary artist,
shows the sea and shore off Scheveningen in the year
1570, just before a memorable and historic tempest.
On the beach a vessel is being repaired which snows
the unmistakable relation that exists between the
hull design of the Dutchman's ship and that of the
Vikings. The stem of this sixteenth - century craft
being repaired is especially akin to that of the
modem Dutch tjalk which one encounters every-
where in Holland.
But to return to the sketch before us, which is the
most interesting portion of the painting, we have here
a sixteenth - century "baring buys," or rather the
prototype of the " busche " of the following century.
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Fig. 8.— SOHBVININQBH Hbrbino-Bubb.
This shows a sixteenth-century type of Dntoh fishing oraft in which the square-
sail was still used previous to the emploTment of the lugsail. (After the
picture by Elandts in the Municipal Museum at the Hague.)
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52 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
The herring industry was one of the most remunera-
tive enterprises of the Dutch even during its prosperous
seventeenth century: so remunerative indeed that
any interference attempted by Enghind made naval
wurfare immediately a possibility. The reader may
be perhaps reminded in passing that one of the prime
causes of the first Anglo-Dutch war was tixe fact
that our Charles I. had enforced his prerogative as
Sovereign of the Seas by demanding the sum of
£80,000 annually from the Dutch for licences to fish
in the Narrow Seas. This will give some idea of the
vast amount of wealth that the Hollanders must have
found in the harvest of the sea every year, and of
the large fleets of herring-drifters that put to sea
from the Dutch ports. And it was in the summer
of the year 1652, when the first real beginning of
the Dutch war took place, that Blake, who had
sailed northwards to Scotland, came upon a big fleet
of these herring-men fishing oflF Buclian Ness and
captured a hundred of these buss-ships.
vf This sixteenth-century buss-ship which we are now
considering was of a smaller type than those that
were to follow, but it exhibits just those transitional
features between the square-sail and the lugsail of
which we are speaking. The ship has two masts,
consisting of a mainmast and foremast, the former
being the smaller of the two, and the main being
stepped a long way forward ^f the stem. On each
mast is set a square-sail with sheets and braces as
on a fuU-rigged ship, the yard being kept to the mast
by wooden parrels.
In Elandts' picture one of the three men is at the
helm whilst the other two are busy lowering away
canvas preparatory to beaching their craft on the
sandy shore. It will be noticed that these busses
have shrouds to support the masts, and that a forestay
extends from the top of the mainmast. In the
Elandts picture the artist has been so anxious to
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 58
show the men m the act of stowing the mainsail that
he has not been able to work into the drawing the
shrouds on the port side, although he has been
careful to show that the boathook in the bows is
all ready for use as soon as the vessel bumps on the
shallows. In the picture in Fig. 4, wnich was
sketched in the Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam, from
the painting by Jacob Bellevois, we see a couple of
seventeenth-century busses, of ^eater size and power
than those of the preceding picture. Bellevois was
born in 1621, and was buried in September of 1676,
so that if we suggest that this picture was painted
about the year 1652 we shall not be far wrong, and
shall have an accurate conception of the kind of
vessels which Blake surprised off Scotland. There
is additional probability that this picture was painted
about the year 1652, for at that time Bellevois was
living at Rotterdam, and five years later moved inland
to Gouda.
It will be noticed that the busses have now become ,
more powerful ships, and that they carry a mizzen as
well as main and fore. If we were to take away the
fore and mizzen we should have in respect of rig and
hull almost an exact replica of the Humber keel which
is so familiar a sight to Yorkshiremen and those who
live near the Trent. The buss — she spelled her name
with all sorts of variations that included buySy btische,
buze, and buis — was sometimes called a,JUbot, though,
strictly speaking, the vlie-boot or flibot was a small
"flute" of a size not exceeding 100 tons and of a
round stem. The flibot proper was a deep, bi|f-
bodied craft lacking both foremast and topgallant-sail.
A flute, or as she was sometimes called, a pink, was
also a big-bellied craft, used as a storeship or for
transport piurposes. She was a three-masted ship
and square-rigged, except, of course, for the lateen
on her mizzen. .
But the buss-ship as we here see her was square-v i \
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 55
rigged without topsails or topffallants or lateen. She
was usually of about 62 feet long and 18 feet beam
and 8 feet deep. She had cabins both forward and
aft, the former serving for the galley. These ships
were commanded by a master or "patron" — as the
French to-day call their skippers, if you care to look
at the memorial stones to tnose fishermen or pilots
who have lost their lives off Calais — and the crews
of the busses were provided with food in the form
of biscuits, dried fish, salt butter, and oatmeal. Some
of the bigffer busses measured 71 feet long, and cost
£2825 to build, not including the heavy ironwork.
The sails were of Holland ck>th, the mainsail with
its bonnets — which were laced according to mediaeval
fashion along the foot of the sail after the manner of
the modem Norfolk wherry — measuring 15 ells long
and 18 ells wide. The foresail with its bonnets was
12 ells long and 10 ells wide, whilst the mizzen with
its bonnets was of the same length as the foresail but
one ell less in width. It will be observed that neither
in this nor the Elaildts picture are leeboards shovm to
belong to these craft. The usual custom for the buss
was to sail out to her fishing-ffrounds using her three
sails, or, if a two-master, wiUi her main and foresail
only. Then lowering both foremast and foresail,
but keeping her mam or mizzen up, according as
to whether she was a three-sticker or two, she rode
to her herrinff-net, precisely as a Lowestoft drifter
to-day, though ketch-rigged, lowers her main and
rides to her nets, or the Sussex lugger to hers.
The photograph of the picture in Fig. 5 by Abraham
Storck, who <ued about the year 1710, shows a couple
of small busses of the year 1688. In the foreground
one is lying at anchor with foresail lowered and
mainsail up, whilst astern of her another buss is
running b^ore the wind under mainsail only. This
picture is him^ in the Mauritshuis at the Hague.
Now, lookmg at these buss-ships, and especially at
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56 lORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
4 the inainsail of the vessel to the right of the picture b^
Bellev6is, one can readily see how easy was the transi-
tion from the square-sail to the lug. The two sails
have a very great deal in common. Neither has a
boom, and both have a yard which is slung from the
mast. But there is thi^ important difference, that
whereas the square-sail is slunff from the centre, the
yard of the lugsail is suspended at a point about one-
third or a quarter of its length forward of the mast.
The yard also, instead of being at right angles to the
mast, as in the square-sail, msSies a much smaller angle
with the mast, varying from about forty degrees.
Furthermore, as in the case of the dipping-lug, which
is much used by our fishermen, the taqk^ or the sail is
made fast some distance forward of the mast And
since the sail has to be hoisted on the lee-side of the
ship in order to get the best advantage, it has to be
lowered on each tack and set again on the other side.
In the Bellevois picture the tack of the mainsail has
been sheeted forward so that the vessel will get as
close to the wind as possible, but so long as it remains
a square-sail and has not those features of the lug just
mentioned, there will be a difference of at least one
point in the sailing qualities of the square-sail and the
lug, and the advantage will be in favour of the latter.
Therefore, by the not very elaborate process the yard
of the square-sail is braced round, the tack is hauled
down, and the after end of the yard becomes peaked.
Thus the square-sail becomes a fore-and-after.
I have not thought it necessary to reproduce more
than these accompanying illustrations to explain how
small in reality is the alteration, but the reader who
cares to pursue the subject will find ample pictorial
evidence m the works of the great Dutch painters of
the seventeenth century, especially of such men as
those already mentioned, as well as Van der Velde
and Bakhuyzen. The Dutch museums teem with such
paintings, and the galleries of London and Paris will
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 57
afford probably as many examples as will be required.
In the next sketch in Fig. 6, which is taken from
a model in the Rijks Musemn, Amsterdam^ we see
the Dutch equivalent of the Mediterranean lateen
galley. Here there is no hesitation as to the ri^,
and the lugsail has entirely , replaced the square-sail^
but a mizzen has been added as a kind of after-
thought, and a jib too. Very characteristic are the
pair of leeboards on each side and the unique arrange-
ment of topsails. So as to clear the mast the topsail
is divided into half, and the little yard on the after-
half is very characteristic of the Dutchman, who loves
these small spars and employs them whenever he
has an opportunity — as, for instance, for bending the
halyard to his foresail on a hoogarts, as we shall note
later on. It cannot be denied that this model before
us, with her guns, her chase-piece, and her beak,
betrays the iimuence of the Mediterranean galley,
even though the lugsail is different from the lateen.
Hundreds of the Mediterranean galleys rounded
Ushant and came up the English Channel in the
sixteenth century. But they were never popular
with our own seamen, notwithstanding that Henry
VIII. had some built for his navy and fitted out by
imported Venetians. As the galley contingent of
the Armada found, the chops of the Channel and a
capfrd of wind made them singularly unpleasant craft
for those who had to work in them. But it is not
too much to claim for the Dutch craft in front of
us, for the Deal galley, the Sussex, Cornish, Manx,
Scotch, and French luggers, that there is found in
these the best forms of craft to correspond with the
galley of the Mediterranean and of southern history.
We have thus witnessed one branch of the develop-
ment of the fore-and-aft rig in northern waters, and
we can now proceed to watch the evolution of a still
more interestmg type which eventually brought about
the cutter, the sloop, the ketch, the yawl, and the
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 59
schooner. Just now we referred to the date 1475 as
being in all probability the time of the first fore-and-
afters in the north. I have arrived at this date
through the evidence of an illustration seen in the
Islana of Walcheren. The cutter and sloop did not
come about with one step. There was a curious
intermediate stage in an endeavour to obtain a com-
paratively handy rig that was more seaworthy than
the lateen. The reader is invited to examine closely
Fio. 7.~An Earlt Sixtbbnth-obntxtbt Fobb-and-Apteb.
This Teasel had a spritsail, as seen, bat no headsaiL On the horizon will
be seen other contemporary craft similarly rigged.
the curious little illustration which is herewith pre-
sented in Fig. 7. The craft in the foreground has
been copied faithfully from a map of the year 1527,
but it is practically identical as to rig with the pic-
torial evidence belonging to 1475. A similar craft,
with exactly the same rig, is to be found on the
horizon of a printed illustration to an Elizabethan
book printed in 1587 recording the pomp and cere-
mony of the homecoming and buriid of Sir Philip
Sydney, and this has been inserted in the accom-
panying sketch. Furthermore, in the Rijks Museum,
Amsterdam, there is hidden away in an obscure, dark
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60 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
comer a picture which bears very closely on our
inquiry, and still further strengthens our testimony
that about the time we are speaking of there had
come into being a new kind of fore-and-aft rig, which
consisted, as will be observed, simply and solely of
one spritsail. There was no jib, there was no boom,
no gaff. The mast was placed very far forward in
the eyes of the ship, and the one sail was very similar
to the mainsail of a modern Thames barge. It had
a sheet as well as a vang leading from the peak, and
the steersman will be seen to h(3d both these in his
hand. The shape of the rudder and of the hull
suggests very strongly Holland and her craft, and the
spritsail is essentially Dutch by origin.
This rig, then, was a kind of una-rig, as we should
nowadays call it, and with the sail placed so far for-
ward no doubt the vessel would beat to windward
after a fashion. On the inland waters of Holland
one still finds small craft rigged like this vessel, and
I remember to have seen such boats on the Hol-
landische Deep near Dordrecht, and also on the
Amstel a few miles south of Amsterdam; but in
the latter case, whilst the same idea was carried out,
the sprit had been dispensed with and, instead, a gaff
and boom added.
We can readily understand how popular this rig of
1475-1527 and onwards became for small craft, because
in hard squalls, by withdrawing the sprit, the sail can be
at once taken off the ship, and that is the reason why
along our coast, especially on the south and west, for
open sailing- boats the sprit has been so long retained.
To take the two first instances that occur to my mind,
it is the rig of the Portsmouth wherry, as well as of
nine-tenths of those little craft which go running in
and out of Salcombe, either in connection with the
lobster-pots or solely for pleasure. The only difference
is that to the primitive spritsail there have been added
a jib as well as a mizzen, which, most people would
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 61
I
agree, fonn a considerable improvement without de-
tracting from the value of the rig in other respects.
But to come back for a moment to the obscure
painting in the Rijks Museum. The incident belongs
to the 2nd of January 1565, when an enormous block
of ice was carried by the current in a quarter of an
hour to the mole of Delfshaven. In this picture will
be seen, brought up, a perfect fleet of these one-sail
vessels, but with canvas stowed. They are evidently
weather-bound, and are anxious to put to sea. The
picture is well worth the careful study of any sailing-
man, because it shows that in the olden days there was
in active use a rig that is snugger but not altogether
unlike the wherry-rig of the Norfolk Broads, if we
gave to it a sprit, a lower peak, and less expanse of
canvas.
Thus, then, we have a chain of evidence beginning
in 1475 and extending through the years 1527, 1565,
and 1587, to show that a kind of una-rig was in voffue,
and that the triangular headsail was not yet used in
conjunction therewith, though before the end of the
century it had been adopted, as we shall presently see.
It was obvious that this addition should be made sooner
or later, for when beating to windward the necessity for
some canvas forward to pull the ship's head round on
to the other tack would impress itself on the mind of
the sailor ; and in order that it might be of such a size
and shape as not to foul the forestay supporting the
mast, it was made identical with that fore-triangle in
the bows of the boat. Thus a halyard was fitt^ and
the, sail was hoisted up the forestay just as we have it
to-day on our cutters. The addition of the bowsprit
and jib came as a later development^ and these we shall
deal with in due time ; but what we are trying to^
impress on the reader for the moment is the fact that
primarily the fore-and-after was a una-rig^ and. that it
was only as an afterthought that the triangular foresail
was added thereto. The sketch of this original rig
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62 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
that we have alluded to is from a map of the world by
Robert Thome. The inscription reads that ** This is
the forme of a Mappe sent in 1527 from Siuill in
Spayne by maister Robert Thome, marehaunt, to Doctor
Ley, Embassadour for King Henry the 8, to Charles the
Emperour. The imperfection of which mappe may be
excused by that tyme : the knowledge of Cosmographie
not then beyng entred among our Marchauntes, as nowe
it is."
In the Abbey at Middleburg there hang on the
walls of the Grand Hall, where the Provinciak of Zee-
land meet twice annually, some magnificent examples
of sixteenth-century tapestry, which show certain in-
teresting naval battles, including the defeat of the
Spaniards by the Dutch at Bergen-op-Zoom, and the
defeat of the Spaniards at Flushing. The date of the ^
latter incident was April 28, 1578 ; and we are able to
see fix>m these designs that the fore-and-aft rig was
employed by the Dutch in their naval warfare of that
time. Here again we find ships rigged una-wise with
the mast placed right in the eyes of the vessel and no
headsails whatsoever. In the battle of Bergen-op-Zoom
some of the Dutchmen are ketch-rigged, the mizzen
being a lateen, but these, of course, are bigger craft
The Spaniards are ship-rigged. As regards uie former,
the rig was as follows : Forward of the lateen-mizzen
came the sprit-mainsail, then the staysail, then a highly
steeved bowsprit ; but as yet the jib has not been intro-
duced, for the bowsprit is still used for the convenience
of making fast the foretopmast - stay by means of
spreaders, into which the lower end of the forestay
separates. It was only after the bowsprit had been
in vogue on fore-and-afters for some time that it
occurred to the seventeenth-century sailors that they
might make use of it by setting another sail thereon, out-
board, of a shape similar to the staysail. The mizzen-
lateen and the bowsprit were of course copied from
the contemporary fuU-rigged ships, and it is curious to
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 68
find that although there was no jib^ yet below the
bowsprit there was carried a square water-sail of the
" Jimmy Green " type. Some of these ketches were
given square - sails, square - topsails, and square -top-
gallants on the mainmast
From yet another source in Middleburg, depicting
a naval fight of February 28, 1578, I find the same
details as to rig, namely, the una-rig of the one tjrpe
and the spritsau ketch of the other, amply confirm^
At times, even when a ship was not provided with a
staysail, but remained still una-riggea, the bowsprit,
steeved up into the air at much the same angle as the
later Mary seen in our frontispiece has it, was employed
solely for the above-mentioned purpose of spanning
out the foretopmast-stay, so as to stay the mast more
effectively. But from numerous pictures and prints
which I have carefully examined, it would seem that
when these una-rigged craft were broufi^ht up the sprit
still remained aloft, though the sail itself was taken off
entirely, and not brailed up as the modem Thames
barge retains it when at anchor or by the quayside.
And even in Turner's early drawings tlus same practice
will be found to be continued.
Among the Dutch at the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury and we early part of the seventeenth it was quite
a favourite rig for the smaller sailing craft to have this
spritsail and staysail, with a bowsprit sticking its nose
high up into the air. The forestay was employed for
setting the foresail, and the bare foretopmast-stay led
down not to the extreme outer end of the bowsprit, as
we should naturally have expected; but when it was
about two-thirds of the way down it ended in a block,
and thence proceeded a pair of spreaders, one of which
was made fast several feet from the outer end of the
" bolte-sprit," whilst the other was affixed somewhere
about the centre of that spar. Sometimes one finds
the spreaders are more elaborate, and instead of being
merely a pair below the block, they become pairs of
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64 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
three each, or six altogether. But the smallest craft of
all, whilst they necessarily retain the forestay, the stay-
sail, and sprit-mainsail, dispense with bowspnt and fore-
topmast-stay. For how many years the una-like rig
survived I cannot say, but I have found that as late as the
date 1674 it was not yet discarded, although, of course,
the staysail was then employed in many other craft;
and by this time, since leeboards had begun to be
employed, they were found of assistance in making the
una type a better sailer on a wind.
Let us now turn our attention for a while to con-
sider a matter connected with a daring Dutch enterprise
belonging \o the end of the sixteenth century. Eim>pe
had got the exploration fever pretty badly, and since
HoUand by its long years of the fishery industry, as
well as over-seas trading, had gradually raised up a fine
race of seamen and an equally fine fleet of ships, it was
certain that sooner or later the Dutch would become
great explorers and voyagers. They had it in mind
that instead of going through the Bay of Biscay, down
the southern Atlantic, round the Cape of Good Hope
or the Horn, a way through to China could be effected
by the Nort-east Passage. A society was formed by
the enthusiasts of Zeeland for the purpose of under-
taking this voyage, and permission was received from
the States-General and Prince Maurice. A squadron
of four ships was fitted out under the command of
William Barentsz, one of the most experienced of
Dutch seamen.
A very great impetus had been ffiven to maritime
enterprise by the publication of a bo<^ dealing with the
East by Jan Huygen von Linschoten. The latter,
while resident at Lisbon, had amassed^ a large number
of invaluable data regarding the East — ^its harbours,
trade winds, configuration, and so on. He also pro-
duced a number of charts and maps for the benefit of
those intent on voyaging thither. There is a very
interesting copy of this work in the British Museum
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Fig. 8.
Fore-and-Afters
p. 80
This illustration is taken from a Dutch volume of travels published in the year 1598,
and shows the influence of the Egyptian nuggar with the old square sail so modified as
to become a kind of lugsail.
Figr. 9.
The Dutch Polar Expedition
p. 66
In this illustration, which belongs to the year 1599, ^i^' ^^ s^^" *^^. ^^° cr^t^t
belonginc to Barentsz's ship. The sloop is seen in the foreground and rigged with
sprit-mainsail and staysail. She has a bonnet laced to the foot of the former, and has
vangs from the peak.
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•• • • •••••
• •• • - - '
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 65
J>rinte(l in 1596, and an English translation of two years
ater. The first northern expedition was, however,
fruitless, and returned home. A second was fitted out,
and that came back to the Maas also a failure. But in
the year 1596 a third enterprise was undertaken again
under Barentsz. The squadron consisted of only two
ships this time, which were equipped not by any
Government but by the munificence of the citizens of
Amsterdam. On the 10th of May the two vessels set
forth, crossed over the North Sea, passed by the Faroe
Isles, and eventually discovered Spitzbergen. In due
time they arrived at Nova Zembla, which had been
already discovered by our English navigator Willoughby
in 1558. One of the two Dutch ships became separated
from the other, and presently Barentsz's vessel became
embayed in the drifting ice, nor could she be released.
We need not waste the reader's time by detailing
all the troubles and trials which now followed. They
have been happily preserved for posterity by one who
accompanied the party. Winter was approaching, and
finally the crew, despairing of ever saving the ship,
whiph was groaning and heaving ominously under the
pressure of the ice, forsook her, and with the driftwood
which they were lucky enough to discover, built them-
selves a large hut ashore, with many an exciting time
in between through the too eager intrusions of the
Polar bears, and with much toil consequent on having
to drag their stores up from the ship by hand-sleds.
The cold was terrible ; their clock refused to go, so
that they could only tell the time by means of their
hour-glass, and thus distinguish day from night in the
darkness of the north. Their beer froze solid in the
casks, and with many an inconvenience and hardship
they continued to inhabit their dwelling from the
middle of October to the following June. It was now
that they determined to make a fierce effort to get to
the south once more. Daylight having returned, and
their big ship being still held fast by the ice, they had
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66 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
only the opportunity left to them of putting to sea in
the two open boats which they had carried on board
the vessel that had brought them north. One of these
boats, then, was forthwith dug out of the snow, but she
was frail enough in all conscience for her forthcoming
voyage, so the men set to work with axes, saws, ham-
mers, and, with the planks taken from the roof of their
hut, raised the craft's gunwales so as to give her greater
freeboard and cause her to be more seaworthy. This
was the larger of the two boats, and was rigged after
the manner of the busses — that is to say, with two
masts, the one right forward in the bows of the ship,
the other about midships, and on each mast one square-
sail.
The second boat was a smaller craft — a shallop or
sloop, as the Dutchmen called this type — and this, too,
was strengthened and given an increased amount of
freeboard. But — and this is the point to which I wish
to call especial attention — she was not rigged like a
buss, but with one mast, a sprit-mainsail and a foresail
working up and down the forestay. The illustration
(Fig. 9), which is taken from the account printed at
Frankfort in the year 1599, shows these two ships'
boats under way. The sloop has, it will be noticed, a
bonnet laced on to the foot of the mainsail, and vangs
leading down from the peak. The craft herself has a
transom stem, a cut-away bow, and she has also been
decked over and a cabin top given her before leaving
the Arctic regions, for prior to this the craft, as is
noticeable from one of the earlier pictures in the Dutch
book, was a mere open boat and in generiil character
almost identical, at any rate above water-line, with the
Yorkshire cobble of to-day, about which craft we shall
speak on a later page.
These two smidl craft succeeded in effecting the
explorers' escape. Unhappily Barentsz died before
reaching home, but after enduring many more hard-
ships — after having occasionally to drag their craft over
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 67
fields of ice, and to fight with Polar bears — ^they arrived
at Kola in Lapland, where the following day the^ found
that other Dutch ship which had started out onginally
from Amsterdam in their company. They went on
board, and having no further use for the two boats
that had brought them so well, they carried them with
due ceremony and veneration to the Merchant's House,
or Town Hall, where they dedicated them to the
memory of their long voyage of 400 leagues, over a
tract never traversed before by such tiny craft. They
then started for home in the big ship, and reached
Amsterdam again on 1st November, by which time they
had been long since given up for dead. Their arrival
was a most dramatic and welcome surprise, and roused
the liveliest enthusiasm among the citizens of this
northern capital.
The little sloop, or sloepe, in front of us was clinker
built, and had no leeboards. She had three shrouds to
her mast on either side, as well as lee-runners. The
sprit to the mainsail was supported by block and tackle,
very much as in the modem Thames barge, one block
being on the sprit and another at the mast-head. But
before we proceed any further, let us endeavour to clear
up any misconception that may exist in the mind of the
reader in regard to the terms employed. It is an
unfortunate historical fact that, throughout the history
of most ships from very early times, sailor-men have
been remarkably careless in nautical nomenclature.
Such words as barks, gallies, wherries, galleasses, and
brigantines have been regularly applied to totally dif-
ferent types of vessels. So also pinnaces, cutters, and
sloops may mean either sailing craft of good size or
merely ships' boats. Therefore we shall do well to
clear the groimd in regard to the fore-and-aft sloop
before we proceed any further.
I am led to the conclusion that there can be little
doubt but that the Dutch sloepe originally signified a
ship's boat such as was used for laying out a kedge
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68 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
anchor, and for keeping up communication between
the big ship and the shore when there was no harbour
for the vessel to enter. The Dutch masters of painting
give us plenty of instances of such ships arriving home
off a sandy beach from the Dutch Indies or elsewhere,
dowsing topsails, and landing their distinguished pas-
sengers on to the beach in the vesseFs sloop. But as
the big ocean-going ships became bigger still, so the
size of the sloop increased, until they were something
far from insignificant. Instead of oeing mere oared
craft, they were so heavy that they were fitted with
mast and sail (as seen in the accompan]ring Polar
illustration of Barentsz's sloop), and were thus an in-
dependent type of sailing craft. Thus it was that the
word sloop was transferred from designating the boat
to signify the rig, and thanks to the early colonisation
by the Dutch of that portion of America which we
speak of nowadays as New England, the word sloop
took firm root in America, and is still used even when
an English sailing man would use the word cutter.
Into this point of distinction we shall look at a later
staee. But for the present we may content ourselves
wim remarking that the English cutters and the
American sloops of this twentieth century are directly
descended from the Dutch ex-ships' boats, which were
called sloepes.
^ The Dutch referred to the craft also as a ** chaloep "
or " boot," and an early seventeenth-century authority,
written in French and printed at Amsterdam, gives
the dimensions of a sloop as 42 feet long, with 9 feet
beam. In the case of a two-masted square-rigged sloop,
as in the larger sloop seen in the Barentsz Ulustration,
the mainmast was 24 feet high, the yard 12J feet long,
and the sail had 21 feet in hoist. The foremast was
15i feet, the foreyard 11 feet, and the hoist of the fore-
sail 10^ feet. This same authority also defines the
sloops as small vessels, some of which have decks,
whikt others had not.
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE (69^
Partly, then, owing to the many miles of inland
waterways, of such important thoroughfares as the
rivers Maas, Scheldt, and Rhine: partly because of
the number of ports on the Zuyder Zee and North
Sea, and the immense amount of traffic which could
be carried on solely by means of water-borne convey-
ances: partly because of the incentive given by the
sloops of the great ships of the Dutch Indies, there
was every encouragement to build numbers of craft
of a moderate size that could carry market-produce
and passengers from the outlying villages to such
towns as Amsterdam, Dordrecht, and the Zuyder Zee
ports, which could be capable of surviving the nasty,
short, steep waves which are characteristic of the broad
estuaries and contingent seas of the Low Countries.
There is an interesting print in the Rijks Museum,
Amsterdam, which is datea 1565, and contains a fuU-
rigged ship, on whose stem is the date of 1564. To
the right of this big vessel is a fore-and-after, which is
rigged as follows. She has the usual fore (stay) sail,
the mainsail has a sprit, and she has also a square top-
sail as in the full-rigged ships. She also shows a bobstay
to support her bowsprit. The staysail just mentioned
is set as a ^innaker, for she is seen running before
the wind. Her mainmast is placed well forward in
the ship, and the sprit-mainsail has the usual sheet and
vangs. But she is ketch-rigged, for she has a mizzen-
mast on which a lateen is set. The hull is entirely
different from those sloops we have been considering,
for it resembles, as far as ever a fore-and-after could,
the contemporary naval architecture of the ocean-goin^,
fuU-rigged vessels. Thus the high-charged stern, with
its towerinfi^ poop-deck, through which the mizzen-mast
passes, str^es the modem eye as very peculiar with
such a rig as this. But it shows that a date over
twenty years before the Armada there were in exist-
ence not merely fairly small sloops for coasting and
inland purposes, but fore-and-aft ketches of consider-
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70 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
able size, which could keep the sea independent of the
shore for a long period, and be able to ride out bad
weather with impunity. There was still no jib to this
type of craft, although the steeved bowsprit is very
clearly shown ; but we can sympathise with the Dutch-
men of that time, and appreciate their point of view
when they found that for such moderate voyages as
across the North Sea to England, and for trade between
the Hanseatic ports, and a good deal of intricate navi-
gation in and out of harbours and rivers, a bold fore-
and-aft rigged vessel of moderate tonnage, so as to be
able to carry large cargoes, was in many ways superior
to the three or four-masted full-ringed ship with her
ultra-seaworthiness but accompanymg unhandiness.
Some idea of the fore-and-aft ships in vogue about
the year 1600 may be obtained from an old Dutch
print of about that date, which is here reproduced in
Fig. 10. At one time the authorship was attributed to
Johannes Saenredam, who lived at Zaandam from 1565
to 1607* Recent criticism has cast some doubt on this
supposition, but if it is not Saenredam's work it is
by one who flourished about the end of the sixteenth
century. In the foreground will be seen a character-
istic Mediterranean galley with her long, low-lying
hull, her beak and enormous yards, on which were set
the lateen sails. You may perhaps wonder for the
moment what a Southern galley was doing in the
port of Amsterdam, until you recollect the years
when Spain and Holland were so closely bound
together. The galley was not beloved by the Dutch-
men, or they would have continued to build this
type, but for a long time Holland was imder Spanish
tyranny, and so, naturally enough, the Spanish galley
came northwards from its own sunny waters to the
fogs and cold of the Low Countries.
Sailing about in the same picture, in wonderful
contrast to this slim, narrow type of vessel, are to be
seen the Dutch fore-and-afters with their ample beam
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 71
but comparatively short length. To the right of the
galley, also in the foreground, is to be seen a large
sloop, the staysail of which is just visible. It will be
noticed that the outermost end of the bowsprit is clear
of any foretopmast stay, as we remarked on another
page was the custom, and the square water-sail, with
its yard and sheets, as in the full-rig^d ships, will be
observed below the bowsprit of this sloop. It is
noticeable that three out of the four sloops are fitted
with leeboards, so we have the fact established that .
these date back at any rate to about the year 1600.
As to when they first came into use cannot be ascer-
tained, though it is possible that it was sometime
during the sixteenth century. An authoritative work
published in Amsterdam about a century later furnishes
us with some interesting details as to the leeboards,
which undoubtedly had their origin in Holland, whence
they were adopted eventually in England, and still
survive in that Dutch-like creature the Thames barge,
to which we have alluded more than once. The Dutch
word for leeboard is zwaard^ which also means a sword
for military purposes. The Dutch word zwaar is an
adjective, signifying heavy.
The French word for leeboard then in use was
semeUe^ which means a shoe. The French verb,
deriver, means to drift, as in the case of a ship.
Consequently the French synonym for leeboard is
still to this day semeUe de derive^ which exactly
explains the use of the leeboard, as being for the I '
frevention of a ship's drifting to leeward. The
)utch authority just mentioned says that the zvoaard
is an assemblage of three planks placed the one over
the other and "cut in the shape of the sole of a
shoe"; and in many of the Dutch craft of to-day
that is exactly the shape in which the leeboard has
remained, the "heel" or narrow part of the "shoe'*
being the part which is pivoted at the side of the
hull, while the broad or "toe" end is let down into
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72 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
the water. That straight form of the leeboard with
which we are most familiar, and is especially noticeable
in the modem hotter, is of latfer evolution.
We learn from our authority that these zwaards or
swords were used by such craft as the belanders {i.e.
coasters by the land) and hulks so as to enable them
to sail on a wind, the usual custom in those days, as
to-day, being to have one suspended on each side of the
vessel When they wish to sail on a wind, continues
the same explanation, whether to starboard or port, the
zwaard which is to leeward, sotis k ventj is lowered
into the water, and so prevents the ship from drifting—
deriver — ^while the other leeboard remains hanging on
the opposite side. The belanders, it may be explained,
were a species of small craft, very flat on the floor, and
in respect of sails and masts resembled the English
hulk or/"heu." The belander's deck began to rise
at the bows and continued up to the poop. The
largest belanders were of eighty tons, and were manned
by a crew of three or four, beinff chiefly used as
cargo carriers, and their leeboards thus enabled these
bufl:y creatures to sail d la bouline — that is to say, on
a wind. After the close of the seventeenth century
leeboards were seldom seen at sea, except on a few
boiers, a few light ffaliots, and some small herring
busses, although dunng the eighteenth century they
were in general use K>r the navigation of internal
waterways. And I have myself been aboard a
Dutch topsail sea-going schooner of about a hundred
tons which carries a pair of enormous zwaards^ though
there are plenty of modem craft of greater tonnage
using these '^shoes'' up and down the canals of
Holmnd. As to the length of the leeboard, the old
rule was that it should be twice the depth of the
ship, but the Zeland and Frisian leeboards were
somewhat long and straight.
It is a litue curious at first sight that the Dutch,
with all their inventive ability for matters connected
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 78
with the ship, with all their wonderful labour-saving
devices, never seemed to adopt the centreboard as it
has been used in both England and America for
shallow waters. It was not the case that the centre-
board had not been thought of in those days, for I
have read in an entertaining little book, published in
England in the year 1578, a suggestion for "a thin^
to be letten downe, and to be wound up againe '
through the ship's keel, so as **to make a ship to
draw or goe but a little wav into the water, and yet
to saile well by the wind, and so "not suffer the
Ship to fall to Leewardes." If that is not the exact
idea of the centreboard I know not what it can be.
But it is most probable that the Dutch never heard
of this English idea, and that if they did they
preferred not to approve thereof, for the sufficient
reason that they did not wish to interfere with the
internal arrangement of the hull or diminish its cargo-
carrying capacities. And there is the further pro-
bability that in navigating such waters as the Scheldt,
where shoals are plentifid and there was every chance
of getting picked up by the sand now and again, they
would rather not risk the nuisance of having the
centreboard jammed in the case. My own opinion
on the matter is that this centreboard suggestion of
1578 was rather a theory than a usage, and it seems
to me most likely that the whole idea of leeboards
came to Holland through some traveller who had
noticed them on the Clmiese craft, where they had
been in use for centuries.
The interesting picture which we have now to
consider (Fig. 11) was painted by Arent Arentzen,
who was born in Amsterdam in 1586, and died in that
city somewhere before October of 1685. We may
suggest, therefore, that the painting was made soon
after the beginning of the seventeenth century. In
the foreground a couple of fishermen are hauhng in
to the shore their seine net, as I have seen tinem
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74 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
doing on the river Maas, when they blow a little
horn to warn passing craft from getting foul of the
meshes. Those cunous caps are still worn by that
fine race of seamen, who come in their botters from
the Zuyder Zee, from the Island of Marken or Urk,
and after passing through the great Orange Locks
into the Eye, sau through Amsterdam and out again
into the North Sea at Ymuiden, and go to gather
the harvest of the deep where waves are frequently
treacherous and short, and bad weather comes rolling
up with all too little warning.
But the most interesting feature of the picture
consists in the two sloops which are seen in the back-
ground. The draughtsmanship of these is a little
crude, but it is none the less intelligible. The illus-
tration is a little difficult also to reproduce, but in the
original one can clearly see the lacing which keeps the
mamsail to the mast. This is another feature which
is very Dutch, and after looking at some hundreds of
modem Dutch fore-and-afters, I do not remember to
have seen a single one that used the hoops we use in
England and America for keeping the luff of the
mainsail to the mast. The advantage quickly mani-
fests itself when leaving a crowded lock, and you
want to get a little way on the ship, but not too
much You can easily trice up the tack, and, further-
more, instead of allowing one hoop to be doing more
work than the others, and so pulling the sail out of
shape, you can by means of the lacing distribute the
strain evenly over the whole luff.
A yacht's trysail is laced to the mast in much the
same way as the Dutchmen of yesterday and to-day
lace their mainsails. It will be noticed, however,
from this picture that there is a good deal of ** drift "
between the luff of the sail and the mast, and this
defect will be found also in the Dutch hoogarts when
we come to speak of her. On the contrary, the Dutch
barge has the luff of her mainsail right close up to
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 75
the mast. Very interesting, too, is the foremost ship
in Arentzen's picture, which shows that even in those
days the germ of the modem spinnaker idea was
prevalent. The little sloop is rmining dead before
the wind, and the mainsail has been eased off in the
usual manner. But the headsail has been let go at
the tack, and brought aft so as to '^ goose- wing " the
craft. Your modem rater does much the same thing
when she is racing without spinnaker, with the excep-
tion that she usually has a ught boom along the foot
of the foresail.
We come now to another interesting development
of the fore-and-aft rig which is well worth our atten-
tion. It is generally but erroneously thought that
the schooner developed directly from the cutter hy u^
merely causing the addition of another mast. This •'
is not so. The schooner really existed before the
cutter, and contemporary with, or but little later,
than the advent of the sloop. But there was just
this difference, that, whereas the schooner of to-day
has triangular headsails, the first schooners had not.
In the illustration (Fig. 12) will be found a somewhat
curious looking craft of the third decade of the seven-
teenth century. This has been sketched from the large
picture on the staircase of the Dordrecht Museum,
which was painted by Adam Willaerts in the year
1629. It shows in a curious way a survival of the
former Spanish influence ; for practically here are a
couple of lateen sails, but witnout masts, since the
lateen yards are used to serve the dual purpose of
mast and yard.
By the employment of the two sails we have the
germ of the schooner idea — the expressed desire to
produce a handy rig for a lengthy vessel without
having recourse to the square-sail. In the present
instance this is little more than an open boat, but
under the contemporary influence there is a high
transom stem, with its tjrpical decoration and me
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 77
very Dutch-like hatchet rudder, to say nothmg of
the large-sized ensign, which never seems al^nt
fix>m these ancient and many of the modem craft of
the Netherlands. I do not know that such a craft as
this is used to-day in Holland. Certainly the stem
would be quite different, but it is curious that in the
same port of Dordrecht I chanced one day to see
coming in out of the strong tideway of the Oude
Maas into the WoUewevers Haven an open boat with
half this rig. That is to say, she had her one sail
bent to the one spar which acted as mast and yard
combined. I watched her subsequentlv tiurn to wind-
ward, and she seemed to sail remarkably welL
But a decided advance on the schooner idea is to
be seen in the illustration in Fig. 18, which has been
sketched from a picture by a master of the Dutch
School in the Boijman's Museum, Rotterdam. The
whole picture is entitled " The Arrival at Rotterdam
of the Market- Barge between Dordrecht and Rotter-
dam." The market-barge itself will be shown in
another illustration, since it has been deemed better,
for the purpose of enabling us to get at the detail,
to detach each of these ships from the composition
of the original, and to study them separately. From
the character of the Rotterdam buildings seen in
the picture it has been thought that the date is
1642, but the name of the artist is not known.
This strange-looking craft is a yacht. She has a
couple of masts, one of which is stepped as far forward
as ever it could be placed. It has no shrouds, but
is supported by means of a forestay, which is sweated
home tight by means of a purchase. The sail is a
peculiar one. It has no boom on its foot, which is
cut more like a forestaysail of a sloop. Both this
and the mainsail have a bonnet laced to the canvas
for fine weather, as will be observed. The foresail is
laced to the mast in the usual manner and is hoisted
by means of a halyard, but I cannot ascertain exactly
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Fig. 13.— The Origin of the Sghooneb (Second Stags).
This is from a Dutch picture of about 1642 and shows a yacht of that period.
From this rig there was to evolve later — in America— by the addition of a
triangular head-sail, the modern schooner rig.
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 79
whether the forestay and the halyard are not one
and the same in this ease. It seems very probable
that the one arrangement has been made to serve
both purposes. Those who are familiar with the
well-known Bermuda rig will be interested to notice
the extraordinarily small gaff which both sails in this
yacht possess. Even in the Dutch craft of to-day
the gaff is usually much smaller than the length we
are accustomed to in England, though some of the
more modem craft of the Lowland waterways, as
for example the trading tjalks, seem to be discarding
the older idea.
Many a sailing man has often expressed wonder-
ment why the Dutchman who favours the short gaff
has done so for hundreds of years. After sailing
through Holland in an English yacht, after ex-
periencing the different kinds of navigation which
these Hollanders have regularly to undergo; after
watching their craft sailing for trade, racing for
pleasure, in fair weather and foul, I fully realise now
that reason which has actuated the Dutch skipper
to favour the short gaff so enthusiastically. It is
iust one detail in that whole scheme which tempted
him to adopt the fore-and-aft rig at all. The
advantage of the short gaff is not that it will give
him increased speed : on the contrary, he is diminishing
his sail area very considerably. But that is not such
an essential in canals and narrow waterways as handi-
ness. Suppose it is a squally day or the wind is
steadily strong as it comes over the long stretches of
low-lying land. As you sail along through an avenue
of short trees, or perhaps through the centre of a
little town or village with stumpy houses on either
side, the lower part of your sail is blanketed while the
upper part catches the full force of the squall or strong
breeze that comes rushing across over the windmill-
dotted country. The consequence is that your ship
becomes less handy, is not under proper control ; and
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80 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
at the most awkward moment, when the narrow
space of an opened bridge is being negotiated, or
when passing other vessels in a conftaed bend of the
river where the strong tide runs stronger stiU, you
may find that the long gaff will receive a little puff
and give the steersman a sudden anxiety.
Again, during his voyage from one town to another
— say perhaps he is carrying a cargo from Amsterdam
that has come into that port from the Dutch colonies
— the inland-sailing tjalk loads up from the steamer
and is bound for some town in the south of Holland,
or even further still, perhaps to Antwerp. On the
way he will have all sorts of seamanship to perform
and different kinds of navigation along narrow canals,
broad rivers, perhaps up an estuary four miles in
width, and a fog to make his work the more difficult.
But during these trips one regular activity will con*
sist in negotiating the locks along part of the route.
Now, to take a neavy sailing craft inside properly,
to carry just enough way on as "would not break
even an eggshell," as the sa3dng is; to enter quietly
these crowded basins, perhaps full of sailing botters,
haaks, tjalks, a couple of steel motor cargo-carriers
or a steamship— all this requires not merely a great
deal of skill to avoid doing damage, but necessitates
a certain amount of handiness m rig. It is just
here, then, that the short gaff is so useful. The
greatest sail area is at the lower half of the mainsail
and the smallest is at the top; and when the time
comes to lower away, the canvas comes down with a
run, there is no heavy gaff to go swinging and
swaying about. It just comes plumb down, and the
sail stows itself in parallel lines. Even on the modern
Dutch yachts a mainsail is not stowed, as the English
yacht's hand performs his work by first taking the
leach and laying it forward along the boom. On the
contrary, the Dutchman's mainsail piles itself up in
so many layers when the halyard is let go.
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 81
To come back to our illustration, it will be
noticed that instead of having shackles the halyards
are attached by means of curved hooks. The main-
sail is loosefooted and is sheeted in the usual way
with a block at the end of the boom, but the fore-
sail will have to be trimmed at each tack, though
it is possible that sooner or later a wooden or iron
horse was used, just as in our present-day barges.
The solid rubbing-strake which is seen here as on
most of the craft of the Netherlands is very neces-
sary when the vessels have frequently to squeeze
their way into crowded locks or to spend much of
their time alongside quays and wharves. The hi^
stem is a^in copied from the ocean-goinff craft,
a fashion that took centuries to die out; and among
other details it will be seen that the vessel boasts
of cabin and a cabin-top. As this is one of the
earliest records of a yacht — a ^* sloepe '* as she would
have been called in those days, regardless of her
rig — she is well worthy of the amount of attention
which the reader has been asked to devote to her.
One need only add that it required but a very
mild form of transition for the subsequent alteration
to turn this two-masted vessel into a schooner by
providing her first with a big jib and by stepping
the masts further aft; secondly, and later on, by
giving her a smaller lib but also a staysail in place
of one large headsail. How this came about we
shall describe in another chapter.
But in the same seventeenth-century original from
which this sloepe has been copied there is another fore-
and-after of that time, which has also been sketched
and here reproduced in Fig. 14. This shows the Dord-
recht-to-Rotterdam market-barge with her passengers
coming in. The wind not being favourable, two of her
crew are quantinff while the helmsman carefully keeps
the rudder amidships. The details of the running-gear
and the sails are easily discernible. There is of course
p
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Fig. 14.— Dutch Mabkbt-Babgb.
This also belongs to the 1642. There is no bowsprit to this sloepe-rigged
crsSt, but she has a sprit, mainsail, and staysail.
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ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 88
no bowsprit; and in a country where so much lock-
work ana intricate sailing has to be done, who would
blame the Dutch for dispensing with the bowsprit?
To-day it is true that this spar is much more frequent,
but it is fitted with suitable gear to enable it quickly to
be hauled up out of harm's way. Nevertheless, it is
always getting damaged from one reason or another.
The worst accident I saw was when a big steel sailing-
craft was emerging from Gouda sluis into the river
Ijsel, that flows south for a few miles and then joins the
Maas, to find its way through Rotterdam into the North
Sea. This barge was unable to check her way enough
as she came out of the lock, but took char^, narrowv
avoided colliding with the heavy trafiic waiting to lock
in, and crashed into the opposite shore where the bow-
sprit ended its life's work.
The other accident which comes back to me was
when a cluster of most a dozen different kinds of craft,
including ourselves, a couple of Dutch yachts, several big
haaks, and some tjalks, had taken shelter in a bottle-
necked little harbour between Dordrecht and the North
Sea. By the time we had all found berths in this little
haven tnere was no more room for any other craft to
get much shelter. Those big bowsprits became a
terrible nuisance as one vessel after another came
running in and let go his anchor prior to swinging
round ; and before we were all squared up in an orderly
manner at least one Dutchman had suffered damage.
The bigger vessels must, of course, set jibs, and so
cannot dispense with these great spars, but we cannot
be surprised that the smaller craft of the hoogarts and
hotter tjrpes hesitate to set their bowsprit until outside
of the inland waterways and in the sea.
The staying of the mast in this market-barge before
us is a little Strang and contrary to custom : £cnr the
shrouds of the rigging, instead of being abaft the mast,
are a long way forward. The runner which comes
down from the throat of the sail and leads through a
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84 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
hole on the quarter just forward of the hole where
the vang comes through is fitted with a purchase and
has three blocks. The forestay is tightened to the
stem-head by means of a purchase also. The sprit is
supported in its centre by a tackle from the throat, but
the peak is also sustained, as will be seen. A short line
from the latter ends in a block. Through this is rove
another line, one end of which is made fast to the
mast-head, while the other leads through another block
fastened to the mast some distance above the throat,
and so leads down to the deck. The luff of the sail is
again observed to be laced to the mast.
One very curious feature of Dutch craft, which still
survives, is the curved ensign staff. Other countries
usually set them at an angle leaning over the stem, but
the staff itself is a perfectly straight spar. In Holland
the yachts almost always have them curving outwards,
sometimes even in a more exaggerated manner than is
seen in the present picture. But although a flag is
here seen at Uie peak, and is so shown in mnumerable
old masters and existing prints, yet this practice is now
chiefly confined to the Dutch yachts. Three other
minor points are worth pointing out. The leeboards
are somewhat shoe-shaped in this sketch, though not
unduly; and following the accepted practice on the
contemporary ocean-gomg ships, the anchors are stowed
outboard and not on deck. Pf otwithstanding that the
barge has a good rubbing-strake, she has got out those
sausage-sha^d wooden rend-offs which were such well-
known features of this time. In regard to the hull in
this picture, as in many another : in the Dutch hulls of
yesterday and of to-day no one can fail to recognise the
obvious descent of the Dutch naval architecture from
that of the Viking ship. The bows, the stern, and the
under-water lines of the Lowland craft have indeed
been modified to suit local conditions and special pur-
poses, but there is still obvious the very near relation-
ship ; and when we compare the Scandinavian pilot
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 85
craft of to-day with a contemporary Dutch tjalk the ^
famUy likeness is no less apparent.
The manner of lowering the mainsail in case of a
squall or when brought up is well shown in Fig. 15.
This is a reproduction of the picture by Jan Josephsz
van Goyen which hanffs in tne Mauritshuis at the
Hague. Van Goyen, who was about sixty years old at
the time, painted this in the year 1655, the year before
his death. To the left of the picture there is a fore-and-
after by the quay. From this we see that, to stow
mainsail, brails were not employed as the Thames barge
has them to-day, but the sprit was fitted with a block i
at its heel throu^ which a line was led. By slack- ^'
ing away this line the sprit was allowed to swing up,
and the peak could be lowered — ^partially in case of a
temporary squall, or altogether for taking sail off the
ship. A fleet of tjalks is seen running up one of the
Dutch rivers on the right of the picture. The flags
lust now noted will be seen conspicuous at both mast-
head and peak. The vanffs and other details have
already be«i alluded to, so that we need not now refer
to these.
We have, then, been able to witness not merely the t^
evolution of the early fore-and-aft rig in the south, but
its firm adoption in the north of Europe. We have
seen the inauguration and propagation of a species of
rig infinitely more suited for tne sea that touches the
shores of the Netherlands as well as for traversing its
inland waters. We have observed the Hollander gradu-
ally feeling his way towards producing the ideal rig for
smaller sailing craft, and we have watched step by step
the improved devices which he has invented as time and
experience suggested to him new ideas and improved
methods. We have been able to adduce actual con-
firmation of this from existing pictorial evidence. All
the time botJi the hull and the rig were under the
influence of the full-rigged ship. But this was only
natural, and cannot be wondered at ; for the sea expen-
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86 ORIGIN OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
ence of these sailor-men had been gained either from
those big vessels which fought with the Spaniards and
voyaged to the Dutch coK>nies» or else it had been
obtained from those fleets of herring-busses which from
time immemorial had been fishing m the waters of the
North Sea. But as soon as they devoted their serious
attention to a consideration of the ideal t3rpe of craft
required, firstly for the canals and rivers, and secondly
for short sea voyages, these sixteenth and seventeenth
century seamen and shipbuilders brought into being a
rig and tjrpe of craft that were not far frt)m ideal for
the service that was required of them. It is sufficient
proof how reasonable and effective these creations were,
how nearly perfect thw were in character, by the fact
that our cutters, our ketches, our yawls, our yachts,
fishing-smacks and pilot craft have continued all this
time to follow the lines first enunciated. Even if we
make allowances for the modification of a good many
small details, yet it is surprising to find how much we
owe to the shipmen of the Low Countries.
But we have not yet seen the full extent of our
indebtedness, and must now proceed to watch the
further development of the rig in the hands of those
ingenious people who rose in so short a time to become
such a mighty maritime nation that they had none to
rival them. Comparatively brief though the Dutch
pre-eminence was, yet it was a brilliant period in nauti-
cal matters and in the production of great masters of
painting. England had too many domestic troubles of
her own during that period to think much of the new
rig. She had barely settled down after the Spanish
wars than the anxieties of the time of James I. cul-
minated in the Civil Wars and the beheading of Charles.
All this time the Hollanders had been going ahead in
their triiunphal march of maritime progress, until the
time came for them to clash with England, and eventu-
ally to suffer by the encounter. But oefore their retro-
gression occurred the Dutch had done much for the
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IN NORTHERN EUROPE 87
science of naval architecture, and brought into being a
type that was destined to be applauded by generations
of seamen, professional and amateur, in man^ parts of
the world, but especially in those ports which touch
the North Sea, the English Channel, and the North
Atlantic.
It is highly probable that even before the end of the
sixteenth century there were some fore-and-afters built
in England, though I have not been able to find anv
definite and detailed records of this. Brixham, which
was to become famous for its fore-and-aft rigged fishing
fleet, has been instanced. But England was far too
busy with her bigger fleet to pay any great attention or
to lend much encouragement to such vessels. She had
not the same personal interest that Holland with her
many miles of inland waters possessed. She was much
more concerned with the building and fitting out of
those vessels which went sea-roving to lay in wait for
the Spanish treasure ships, and so enable the English
promoters to return home with their wealth, purchase
fine houses and estates, and lay the foundations for
future family prestige. Some others were content to
follow the more peaceful pursuit of fishing off* our
coasts or ofi^ Newfoundland; but, as we know from
contemporary documents, this was sometimes anything
but a paying job.
Holland, however, had no choice in her destiny.v^
She had to find some sort of small, handy vessel for
her home waters, and thus she did so.
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CHAPTER IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOBE-AND-AFT KIG IN
HOLLAND
IT is a curious fact that the subject of the sea and
its ships figures with a much rarer frequence in the
history of painting than we should have imagined.
Historically speaking, marine painting is but an inferior
branch of seascape art. If one goes back through the
centuries and traces the progress of painting and
sculpture, it is only on the rarest occasions that one
finds any allusion to the sea. Here and there on
some existing Roman reliefs the subject is occasionally
found, and further back still in Egyptian art there are
even numerous representations of their contemporary
craft: yet these were in most cases rather connected
with religious manifestations than exhibiting intention-
ally aesthetic pleasure.
When we come to the birth and growth of art in
Italy, and examine the schools of painting in that and
other countries, we find a keen disappomtment that
the sea should have been so thoroughly neglected.
Occasionally such inland waters as lakes and rivers are
introduced merely as backgrounds for the main subject
of the picture, and here and there will be found in the
distance a suggestion of the sea and of a ship, often but
crudely depicted, and that by an artist who obviouslv
had neither the knowledge of nor any sympathy wiui
the sea. It is, indeed, not until we come to Holland,
and not until the end of the sixteenth century, that we
find the sea obtaining that recognition at the hands of
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 89
art which it undoubtedly deserves as one of the greatest
forces which nature manifests in a visible and pictorial
form. That marine painting should spring from Hol-
land is explicable when we remember that it arose
contemporaneous with the rise of the Dutch as a great
marine power. Those interesting and, to every sauing- ^
man, fascinating galleries full of Van der Veldes, Van
Goyens, Beijerens, Verschuiers, Storcks, Pompes, Van
der Capelles, Bakhuizens, and many another marine ^
artist are invaluable, not merely as works of art that
can never be repeated, not merely for their subtleties
of atmosphere and light and shade, but for the careful
details which are preserved to us of the shipping of the
period. No one can dare to express opinions on the
ships of those days unless he has taken the trouble to
study them as depicted in these wonderful old masters.
There are some who cannot resist the temptation to
underrate the Dutch school, and certainly it is but
natural that the mind should revolt against the de-
pressing influence, the dullness, and even the coarseness
of many a Teniers and his fellow craftsmen. But in
regard to the painting of portraits and of marine subjects
it is different. Here was a nation of seamen encouraging
the best of its artists to find their inspiration in the sea
and those ships which had made Holland so powerful
and so wealthy. And as we can see from the admirable
examples which time has handed down to us, these
gifted masters did their best to commemorate on canvas
the achievements of the naval architects and shipbuilders
of the time. The fishing craft, the yachts, the trading
ships, the men-of-war : at anchor, under way, in a flat
calm, in a nasty short, choppy sea, in gales of wind,
in whole-sail breezes: with strong light effects, with
delicate reflections on the placid water, with terrible
storms and shipwrecks and high seas and perilous
waves: in harbour, on canals, on meres, with rich
golden sunsets flooding the whole composition, in early
morning light — ^in fact in every aspect the Hollanders
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90 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
depicted every kind of floating vessel, from the open
boat to the man-of-war.
And so, just because when Holland was at its highest
stage of worldly power her artists and her shipping were
also at their best, so in this chapter we shall continue
to draw upon these pictorial representations in order to
assist us in our study. In spite of Ruskin's well-known
antipathy to Dutch painting, we shall yet find both
instruction and interest in these masters. '<It is not
easily understood,'* wrote Ruskin, *' considering how
many there are who love the sea, and look at it, that Van
der Velde and such others should be tolerated. Foam
appears to me to curdle and cream on the wave sides,
and to fly flashing from their crests, and not to be set
astride upon them like a peruke ; and waves appear to
me to fail, and plimge, and toss, and nod, and crash
over, and not to curl up like shavings; and water
appears to me, when it is grey, to have the grey of
stormy air mixed with its own deep, heavy, thunderous,
threatening blue, and not the grey of the first coat of
cheap paint on a deal floor."
But in defence of Van der Velde and his brother
marine artists, in defence of the very pictures which
are essential to our present theme, it may be urged in
reply that at any rate these artists were sincere, that
they painted the sea and the ships as they appeared to
themselves, and not according to any existing con-
vention. They interpreted the subject through the
medium of their own personality, and not by any
thumb-rule. They went to nature with great equip-
ment, but with an open mind. Bakhuizen used to
put to sea in all weathers so as to gain accurate im-
pressions for his pictures, and therefore we must regard
his works as trustworthy. Van der Velde also — and
this ought to be quite obvious from a mere examination
of his paintings — spared himself no trouble and incon-
venience to get at marine truth. He studied the ship
in all her ways, and even went into battle in his yacht
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 91
amid great danger so as to be able to sketch the in-
cident, not from survivors' narrations, but from actual
evidence seen with his own eyes. Quite recently I
was examining a number of his rough sketches done
on the spot. Perhaps Ruskin might not have liked
them, but at any rate the information which they
convey to a mind not accustomed to the sea is very
far from negligible. And as to the '^curdling" and
"creaming" of the waves, that point does not matter
when we are less concerned with wave effects than
with rigging and hulls. It is even amazing to find
that to-day there are art critics who soberly affirm
that "the storms of Van der Velde are certainly un-
attractive." Perhaps it would have been better had
the critic qualified his statement by remarking that
such pictures are unattractive only to the man who
knows nothing about ships. On the contrary, most
sailing-men find the keenest enjoyment in rejgarding
the ship in these trying conditions — in watching her
behaviour in wind and sea, in noting the methods
which her crew have taken to make her snug.
For these Dutch masters knew what they were
painting. They lived and worked surrounded by sea-
men and children of seafaring people. There were so
many candid critics about that had these artists begun
to paint the ship as they imagined her and not as
they saw her, they would very quickly have been
corrected by their fellow-men. Even Ruskin, in
spite of his prejudice, admitted that the Dutch
painters "attained considerably greater dexterity
than the Italian in mere deUneation of nautical
incident," If he complains that these same Dutch-
men had "never in afl their lives seen the sea, but
only a shallow mixture of sea-water and sand, and
also never in all their lives seen the sky, but only a
lower element between them and it, composed of
marsh exhalation and fog-bank," then let us not dis-
credit them for painting only what they saw, whereas
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92 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
the Italians did not always do so much ; but let us
rather value the Dutch paintings because whatever
else they may or might be they are based on sincerity
and truth) a basis, one would have thought, that was
as essential to art as secure foundations are to any art
critic's dwellin^^'house.
We may, ^en, now proceed to gather our harvest
of information from these much maligned masters.
Even if we discover them erring occasionally, we
shall find them on the whole reliable guides in our
investigation. The first (Fig. 16) is by Abraham
Hendricksz van Beijeren, a weUknown marine painter,
who lived all his life in the neighbourhood of the sea.
Bom in 1620, he had fifty years' experience of the
contemporary craft of his country, and the accom-
panying picture, which hangs in the Boijmans
Museum, shows in sincerity and truth one of those
confused seas which are so characteristic of Dutch
waters. But most important of all detail is the con-
firmation of the evidence which we adduced in the
preceding chapter. The support of the peak of the
spritsail by a line to the mast above the throat, the
total absence of jib, the flag at the peak, and the
tumble-home of the vessel's hull, the vangs, the lee-
boards, and so on, are all well worth remarking. No
definite designation is given to the geography of this
picture, yet the church in the background, the jobble
of a sea, the broken breakwater, the little tjalks
thrashing to windward, will revive a hundred familiar
memories in the minds of those who have sailed in
Holland.
But it is when we come to Ruskin's Van der Velde
that we find a perfect feast of delight. Those misty
flat-calms, so peculiar to Holland, happily do not
detract from the value and enjoyment of the picture.
On the contrary, they enable us to study with greater
ease the types and rigs of the different vessels. If
we remember that this William van der Velde, the
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 98
younger, lived from 1688 to 1707 we shall realise
how important a relation he bears to our subject.
Speaking roughly, the Dutch were at the topmost
rung in their ladder of progress and prosperity about
the year 1668. At that time also Van der Vdde was
in ms prime as an artist The best types of Dutch
ships belonging to the golden ace of that country
were everywhere to be seen by him. Consequently
we find in his paintings records which are simply
invaluable to us. In this first picture (Fifi^. 17) it
will be seen that a great advance both in architecture
and rig has taken place. In the foreground, stem on
to us, is seen one of those magnificent Dutch yachts
of which we shall have more to say presently. The
gilded stem with its lantern is expressive of the
wealth that was at this time a feature of Dutch life.
Beautifullv carved, it rises to a great height from the
water, ana is in many respects similar to the stems
of the contemporary men-of-war and East Indiamen.
The rig, also, we shall discuss in detail later on, but
for the moment we may content ourselves with
remarking that the spritsail is still at that time
used for a mainsail, and that it is peaked very high.
To the left of the picture will be noticed a vessel
that has sprit mainsaU, but sets a square topsail above.
For headsails not merely does she carry the usual
foresail working on the forestay, but by now she sets
a jib. True, t£e bowsprit is steeved at a somewhat
considerable angle, but at any rate by about this time
— ^the late seventeenth century — ^the general appearance
of what we call the cutter-rig had begun to take
definite shape. The fore-and-ailer close to her has
slacked away the heel-rope of her spritsail, and by
thus allowing the spar to swing up and forward has
caused the peak of the sail to be dropped. To the
right of the picture will be seen a curious hybrid kind
of rig consisting of a high square-sail and a staysail.
This arrangement would seem to have evolved from
y^
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94 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
the buss herring-ships which we discussed on an earlier
page. There is but one square-sail, and that is set on
the mast stepped amidships. No doubt it was because
the sloops had found the triangular headsail so valuable
for handiness that at last even the pinks with their
great, heavy, clinker-built bodies and their leeboards
at last decided to adopt this triangular sail for use
when on a wind, whilst yet retaining the lofty square-
sail, which would be especially serviceable for running
before a free wind. Handiness in the pink was not a
greatly desired virtue. Most of her time was spent as
to-day in lying to her nets off Scheveningen, in the
North Sea; but doubtless there were times when
running out to, or home from, the fishing grounds
that the staysail would be found very convenient.
Thus, for the present, the fisherman did not see his
way to "go the whole hog" and have a true fore-
and-after while he was about it, for he had been
brought up to using the old-time square-sail, and he
had no wish for the bi^ spar of the spritsail up aloft,
swinging its heavy weight backwards and forwards
across the ship as the latter rose and fell to the
waves. Any one who has had experience of riding
to nets or anchor with a spritsail rig in bad weather
will agree that in such cases the sprit-rig is an abomi-
nation. I have never heard of a spritsaU-rigged vessel
being employed in the fishing industry, with the excep-
tion of the small hoogarts of Walcheren, and it is signifi-
cant that the bawley rig, which is the nearest of all British
fishing craft to the Dutch rig, has for her boomless
mainsail not a sprit but a gaff. But I have been told
by the owner of an English barge yacht what it feels
like to be in bad weather, even at anchor, with such a
spar as shipmate. He had been compelled to run back
for shelter to the Dutch coast, and anchored. There
came a shift of wind, and the sea got up. Presently
this developed into a gale, the force of which I weU
remember, for I was tied up in the snuggest of Dutch
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 95
harbours a few miles away, and felt much of its power
even then. A terribly anxious night was spent, my
friend told me, as the barge viciously snubbed at her
anchor, but the greatest anxiety was whether that
swaying sprit would break adrift and drop down,
killing some of them, and perhaps crashing through
the ship. This is not the place to tell the whole
story, but it may be added that after burning flares
for a while during the night the barge had eventually
to be abandoned, and was wrecked, though, I believe,
subsequently salvaged, yet much damaged.
I mention this experience, which occurred only as
recently as the end of last summer, for it shows that
whatever virtues this almost universal rig in Holland
possessed in the seventeenth century, yet emphatically
it was not suitable for vessels that were not keen on
making a quick passage. Thus, if we turn now to the
next Van der Velde (Fig. 18), we shall see that the
Dutch did away vsdth the sprit on some of their main-
sails. They were so prosperous at this time, they were
so full of energy, they had so many incentives to alter
their vessels that they were ready to use every ingenious
idea for improving their craft. Consider for a moment
what was in their minds. The old lateen was really a
large triangidar sail, of which one part was set forward
of the mast. Now that part had found itself repro-
duced in the staysail of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. But the afterpart had to be peaked up, and
since the lateen yard had been done away witn the
sprit took its place, was placed diagonally across the
sail, and thus the main (sprit) sail, together with the
staysail, made up practically the same thing as the
original lateen. And now when the time came to j/^
improve on the sprit the chief point which had to be^<^
aimed at was some arrangement for keeping the peak^
as high as before. This was achieved — after discanling
the sprit — by lacing a shorter spar alon^ the head of
the sail, following the line which the sad made in its
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96 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
extension from peak to mast. In order to support, to
raise and lower this spar, a halyard was rove Uirouj^
blocks, as will be seen from the vessel on the extreme
left. Thus we get the origin of the gaffl But it must
not be supposed that the boom was also at this time
added, for tnat did not come till later on — ^not till the
Dutch found that they could improve the set of the
sail, whether staysail or mainsail, when running by
attaching a light spar to boom the Holland canvas out.
But orcmiarily the gaff was left aloft when at anchor,
and the sail was stowed in a manner very similar to the
Thames barge of to-day by braiUng it into the mast, as
will be seen in the present illustration. And of course
the practice on modem fiill-rigged ships of brailing up
the sjMmker is exactly the same method, although the
trysau is becoming nowadays more common than the
spanker or driver.
The vessel before us, then, had we seen her under
way would have been rigged as follows : Forward she
would hi^ve a bowsprit steeved high out above the
water. On this spar she would set a jib. On the fore-
stay she would carry a staysail, and above this a square
topsail, as on the fuil-ri^;gai ships. Abaft the mast was
set her mainsail, quadrilateral m shape, with a gaff at
the top and no boom. There are so many illustrations
of these vessels rigged as above that there is no possible
suggestion that tney were mere freaks. One can see
how from this the modem cutter has sprun^r, and by
what interesting stages so many of ner important
features have been adopted. In the act of reproducing
this picture the ship alongside that which we have been
discussing has suffered so much in detail that it cannot
easily be recognised, but it is well to mention, for the
prevention of confrision, that the sprit which is seen
belongs not to the ship with a topsail that we have
been considering, but the more obscure vessel alongside.
In the same picture, to the right, will be seen another
of those yachts or " vessels of state and pleasure," with
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 97
gilded stem and lantern over the poop. Many an artist
of this time loved to depict these yachts, for they found
that the decoration of the stem especially appealed to
them, but no one has depicted them with greater ability
than Van der Velde, the man who understood ships if
ever a painter did.
And now let us stop to look into the origin of the
yacht, about whose beginnings a good deal of confusion
seems to have centred. One hears a good deal of care-
less talk that our Queen Elizabeth possessed a yacht,
and that even sovereigns before her time had such a
ship. To make such an assertion necessitates a very
clear definition of terms. To begin with, it is certain
that not Elizabeth nor any of her preceding sovereigns,
nor any of her crew, nor any of tne shipbuilders ever
spoke of the vessel as such. From the time of Edgar
the English kings, and sometimes queens, had indulged
their love of pleasure by sailing on the sea. But that
does not make a vessel a yacht any more than if his
present Majesty King George were to cmise ip the
l)readnought she would be entitled to such a term.
The Rat o' Wight, which belonged to Elizabeth, is
sometimes referred to as being a yacht, whereas it
would be truer to speak of her as a royal ship. Not
only was the word yacht not in use in England at that
time, but even the Dutch, who created the word, had
not then bc^n to use it. At any rate, in a Dutch
dictionary of the year 1578 it is not included. In olden
times, when the Cinque Ports were at their prime,
there were specially fitted up ships for the kings and
queens of England to cross the Channel, but these were
not yachts. They were a modified type of Viking-
shaped ships, with cabins and a square-sail. Even the
Rat o' W^ht was most probably a smaller ship-rigged
vessel and not a fore-and-irfter at all. But if the evidence
of Holland is not enough, let us anticipate a point that
we shall come to later, and quote the remark made by
Sir Anthony Deane in the time of Charles II. to Pepys,
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98 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
when Deane told the genial Secretary of the Admiralty
that before the date 1660 '' we had not heard of such a
name [as * yacht *] in England."
I have searched through whatever books on sea-
manship were published about this time, together with
contemporary dictionaries, and I am convinced that
by the close of the sixteenth century the word
"yacht" had not originated even in Holland. But
the derivation of the word will throw some light on
our subject. There is an old Dutch word, jager^
which means a hunter or sportsman. A secondary
meaning is '' the rider of the norse that draws a boat.'*
Even in the sixteenth century the word jager meant
the equivalent of the French chasseur^ and the verb
is jageny to hunt. Thus jagkt means hunting or
chasing. From this there comes the synonym Jagkt-
schip^ which might mean (1) either a vessel employed
in the service of sportsmen, or (2) a ship that would
sail very quickly, uke the chasing of an animal As
to which of these actually caused the word jaght to
be applied to schip it is not possible to determine.
Anotner origin of derivation is based on the fact
that jagen also means to draw, especially in the case
of a boat: as, for instance, a horse towing a boat
from the bank of a canal. Thus the towed craft
became known as the jagktschip. By colloquial
abbreviation this vessel would soon become known
merely as ^^ jaght. There is in the Rijks Museum
an interesting painting of about this time which shows
a yacht being towed through the Middleburg Canal,
having on board a ^ntleman of distinction. To-day
on many of the canids, as, for instance, between Gk>uda
and Gouwe, when the wind fails or gets ahead, a man
with a horse will come along and offer to tow the
sailing vessel, whether trader or yacht I have seen
a 100-ton haak in a scant fair-wind in a hurry to get
to Amsterdam adopt this method. The horse that is
so employed is called a trek-^aard.
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 99
The suggestions of these three propositions cannot
definitely be set at rest It may be that the word
came from the fact that she was a towed vessel, or
from the fact that she was speedy in comparison with
the other prevailing craft. Considering that she was
built not to carry cargo, but for sailing as well as
possible, consistent with seaworthiness and passenger
accommodation, it seems far more probable that the
jaght'Schip was originally so called because she was
a " chaser " or " hunter " for speed. The Dictionnaire
de Marine^ printed in Amsterdam in the year 1786,
gives the dimensions of a small sailing yacht — **un
petit yacht de promenade " — ^as 42 ft. long from stem
to stem, 9 ft. 4 in. wide, and 8 ft. 8^ in. deep. Her
keel is 80 ft. long. (These are Rhenish feet.) The
bigger yachts are of similar build than the smacks,
says the author. They have hatchways and a raised
deck aft, as well as a room forward, and the vessel
has glass windows. The tiller was made of iron and
bent a little. There were two lead pumps in these
old yachts, and to-day the Dutchman wisely still
retains the custom of having such an essential article
in duplicate, as you will find if you examine the equip-
ment of a Zuyder Zee hotter. This excellent habit
is the very reverse of that which is found on many
English yachts, wherein the pump is placed on one
side of the craft only, so that in bad weather — ^the
very time when you are most likely to need the service
of the pump — the deck on which you would wish to
pump is the lee-side and awash. But according to the
Dutch idea it matters not which tack the ships may be
on, for there is always an available pump on the wind-
ward side. This was a fact that was clearly appreciated
in those days, for the authority just cited adds that the
advantage of having two pumps was *^ so as to be able
to pump from whatever side the vessel leans."
The bowsprit of these yachts was usually not fixed,
and could be run in and out, in order, doubtless, to
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100 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
S've additional convenience in entering harbours or
cks. And it is because the Dutch adapted the
bowsprit, made it capable of being run in and out,
that the English cutters of the old-fashioned type
were thus provided, not with fixed bowsprits, but
spars that could be reefed when necessary. That was
the real origin of the matter — ^the crowded havens
and locks — ^though in actual practice it was found
convenient to run the spar m when bad weather
came down. It was customary for the mast of the
yachts of Holland to lean forward and not be quite
vertical. Windlasses were fitted close to the mast
for hoisting sail, and in the bigger yachts, as, for
instance, the "great yacht of the West Indies"
belonging to the year 1671, the deck at a point
thirty-three feet from the stem was raised eighteen
inches so as to form " la chambre du capitaine."
The length over all of such a yacht as the last
mentioned was sixty-six feet, her width being nine-
teen feet, the planking being very thick and varying
from three inches to four and a half.
There were also yachts for different purposes now that
the fore-and-afters had for so many years shown them-
selves to be so useful and convenient. There were thus
Government yachts, passenger yachts for communica-
tion between the different towns of Holland, and there
were " advys-jaghts " or despatch-boats. This form of
yacht was known as " a kind of galleot," which was
used for carrying army orders, and even to make
big passages. She measured usually 115 ft. long,
27 ft. 5} in. beam, and 11 ft. 5} in. deep, yet she
was not fore-and-aft rigged but square rigged. Even
to-day, though in most other navies there are no
sailing vessels fore-and-aft rigged still employed, yet
in HoUand there still survive some sailing cutters
which one comes across occasionally. With their
varnished hulls, their old-fashioned lines, the Dutch
State yachts of to-day seem curiously out of their
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 101
element alongside the very modem Dutch steel motor
cargo-carriers.
Nowadays these yachts are employed, as centuries
ago, for the purpose of preventing smuggling and for
looking after the fishing; but no longer does one
certain custom continue. Meagre as is Holland's col-
lection of warships to-day, yet it is not still customaiy,
as in the seventeenth century, to attach a sailing yacht
to the fleet. But at that age which is covered by the
Dutch wars, Admiralty yachts were so employed and
used by the admiral m command. With the State
yachts, then, employed for protecting the Revenue and
the fisheries ; with the Admiralty yachts employed in
the service of the navy ; with the " advys " yachts used
for canning despatches ; and with, finally, the numerous
cutters that belonged to the wealthy citizens of Amster-
dam, Dordrecht, Rotterdam, and other cities, and the
hulls of these yachts magnificent in gold, yellow, and
blue, with high bowsprits and lofty resplendent stems —
there would nave been plenty of detail for us to have
admired and criticised had we been able to take a cruise
two and a half centuries ago through Holland.
But it is significant that the influence of the Dutch
navy over these fore-and-aft yachts was very great.
Their sides were pierced for guns, and these latter were
carried, usually eight in number ; and so, whilst as far
as one can find, there was no such thing as yacht-racing
among the Dutch, yet there were plenty of sham-fights.
As one examines the existing pictures and old prints
which have been handed down from the seventeenth
century, one can see these naval manoeuvres being carried
out by the Dutch yachts. For it was a century when
there was always a naval war ending, beginning, or
threatened. There was a strong nav^ enthusiasm in
the Dutch people at that time, and so it was but natural
that the yachts should exhibit this characteristic. Thus
we see pictures of naval reviews undertaken entirely
by yachts, of mock battles and yachts' cannon blazing
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102 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
away. We see fleets of these vessels sailing in the
naval formation of line-ahead, each unit keeping her
station like a squadron of ducks with head to stern and
sails bellying out. In the event of distinguished foreign
visitors the Dutch would entertain them with these
spectacular sham-flghts and water-parades, much as
nowadays we organise a naval review at Spithead.
Detailed sailing instructions were issued, and under the
command of their admiral these lines of fore-and-afters
would come sweeping down, firing their guns as they
came, in the most impressive manner. They would
practise mimic warfare by boarding each other, and
exhibiting their abilities in the arts of naval tactics.
The admiral flung out his orders by signals just exactly
as in actual battle, ordering them to turn, to attack the
enemy, to cease fire, to come alongside for instructions,
and so on. A terrible thunder these yachts made with
their guns, and shook the houses of the city of Amster-
dam down to their very mud-driven piles. To-day,
where wharves and great warehouses have been erected
to deal with the commerce of great steam liners, the
good people of Amsterdam were wont to stand on the
green banks of the Eye and watch the striking evolu-
tions of these fleets of yachts.
In the reproduction (Fig. 19) of a Van der Velde a
nearer view will be gained of one of these yachts to the
right of the picture. There she is with her guns project-
ing from her hull, with her leeboards, her brave display
of bunting, and her rowing-boat tied up astern. The
heel-rope of the sprit has been slacked off, as the vessel
is at anchor, thus allowing the peak to drop ; but the
sail itself is kept to the mast by the usual lacing. In
the foreground and centre of the picture is an early
type of the smallest of the Dutch yachts, known as a
boier, which were usually about eighteen or twenty feet
long. It will be observed that this type of craft was
rigged with a small spritsail like the bigger vessels, and
forward she set a staysail Both this little ship and the
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 108
bigger one behind her are seen to stow their anchors
over the bows after the manner of the fuU-rigged sailing
ships. We alluded just now to the great rake forward
which was possessed by the mast of some of the Dutch
vessels of the time. This is especially noticeable in the
ship alongside the boier. One other point we might
call attention to in connection with the yacht at the
right hand side. It was the practice in the case of the
big, fuU-rigged vessels to cruise with a boat towing
astern, so that if any of the crew fell overboard he
might have a chance of being picked up. In contem-
porary pictures one always finds the painter of the boat
leading to the bigger ship through one of the stem port-
holes. Now, in the case of these high-pooped yachts a
similar practice was followed, and though the photo-
graph in this instance has suffered tnrough being
reduced, yet in the original one can clearly see the
painter of the boat leading up to the port-hole where
it was belayed. Even the yacht's boat apes her bigger
sister by having a stem raised as high as she dare, and
in the older-fasnioned Thames skiffs, and to an extent
in those of to-day, there is a kinship with the open boats
of the seventeenth century and so with the high-sterned
sailing-ships of the early Tudor times. No doubt thtf
unhappy man whose lot it was to be towed in the small
boat must have been glad of this little protection at the
stem, but we cannot exactly envy his experiences when
a following sea kept rolling up and the boat viciously
kept charging first to one side and then the other. At
the extreme left of this picture will be noticed a three-
masted fishing-pink, very similar in hull to the pink we
discussed in our first Van der Velde. This time, instead
of being rigged with one square-sail and staysail, she is
three-masted, her fore and main masts setting square-
sails, but her stem has adopted the raised poop of the
bigger ships, and like the latter she sets a lateen on her
mizzen.
In Fig. 20, the artist (Van der Velde) again affords
r
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104 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
us an opportunity of studying the craft of his time.
The fore-and-after with the white sails in the centre of
the picture has just come out from the harbour. She
has been standing on the starboard tack, but cannot on
that board clear the end of the pier, so, as we just see
her, she is going about, and is in the very act of coming
on to the port tack. The man in the bows is backing
the staysail, and we can see the helmsman pushing his
tiller over to port, so as to enable the vessel to pay off.
The reader will find that it is worth his while to study
the similarity which exists between the rig of this
vessel and of the modern Dutch hoogarts, as repro-
duced in a later chapter. There is no gaff, there is no
boom; the mainsau is fitted with a sprit as usual,
though we cannot see it, since it is the other side of
the sail, and would have interfered in Van der Velde's
composition with the vertical line of the mast in the
small craft in the foreground. But though the main-
sail is laced to the mast, there is still permitted quite a
considerable drift between luff and spar. The small
sailing-boat in the foreground has dropped her stay-
sail, in readiness for coming to her anchorage or entering
a lock. That, at least, is what seems likely, and the
canvas seen in the bows of the boat would be the
lowered staysail. But it is also possible that this is one
of those small fishing-craft such as one comes across in
Hollands Deep, one of those broad tidal estuaries
which lead inland from the North Sea. These are open
boats, and are rigged with spritsail just as this, but have
a curved canvas tent placed forward so that the fisher-
man while at anchor may turn in and sleep. And if
this is the kind of craft which Van der Velde wishes us
to see, then that arrangement forward is not the lowered
staysail but the canvas forecastle. It is impossible to
say for which it is meant, but it is significant that in
such quiet little havens as Willemstadt and Strijensas
just such boats as this, measuring perhaps sixteen feet
in length, are to be seen, or anchored out of the fairway,
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 105
pursuing their calling with canvas hood, spritsail, and
evervthing exactly as in this picture.
In the striking line-drawing (Fig. 21) we have a
good opportunity of remarking the lines of an Admiralty
Dutch vacht. This has been drawn from the model in
the Rijks Museum, and shows a somewhat later type,
as would be in use about the end of the eighteenth
century. The bows of the ship are exceedingly similar
to those of the war-ships of that time, with figurehead
and high poop. She has a nice sheer which comes up
to the typical high stern, with its rich carvings and the
conventional Neptime. Copying the big ships also, it
will be observed that a balcony has been extended from
the quarter, which was fitted with glass windows. This
yacht is very straight on the keel, as was the practice,
and her bulwarks have been pierced for six ffuns aside.
That does not necessarily mean that she earned twelve
cannon plus the two which would be in the stem and
point aft — in all fourteen. For the practice was some-
times to provide more port-holes than were required for
all the guns, so that a full broadside could be given by
transferring those across the deck from the side that was
not in action. The object aimed at was to avoid any
possibility of the ship becoming top-heavy by so much
upper weight. It will be seen at the channel-plates
that five shrouds would be set on either side, which also
was the prevailing number, and many a time was copied
subsequently in British Revenue-cutters. The rudder
is somewhat big, but with the straight stem-post would
doubtless be necessarily so large in order to control a
vessel of such length.
In the next illustration — this time by Abraham
Storck — ^we have (Fig. 22) yet another insight into the
fore-and-aft shipping of the seventeenth century. This
gicture, like the other Storck, was painted in 1688, and
angs in the Mauritshuis at the Hague. On the ex-
treme left will be seen an interesting but somewhat
strangely rigged vesseL She has a good deal of free-
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 107
board, and is of good size. The breeze, although free,
is so very light that she has had to send out her boat
ahead with some of her crew to tow her. This is a
seventeenth-century Dutch galleot, and the precursor
of the ketch. On her mizzen she sets a lateen-sail ; on
the main she is square-rigged, forward of which come a
staysail, and then on the bowsprit a jib, working on the
foretopmast-stay. Below the bowsprit she would also
probably set a water-sail. We have here in one ship a
most extraordinary mixture of the north and south, of
the fore-and-aft ri^ as well as the square. The apple-
stem is characteristic of the modem Dutch galleot,
and I have seen this type in English waters as far west
as Poole in Dorsetshire. It will be noticed that the
hull, with its large amount of tumble-home, is not
unpleasing, even if the vessel seems to us somewhat
unnecessarily ponderous. Still, again, is the close kin-
ship to the ocean-goinff ship displayed in the stem and
the poop-deck. No doubt this old galleot would not
distinguish herself to windward, but in a hard wind,
running free or well on the quarter, she would be able
to render a pretty good account of herself.
From this galleot type there descended firstly the
bomb-ketch. The latter was adapted by the English
and French naval powers towards the end of the
seventeenth century. The French called these vessels,
in fact, " galiotes a bombe," and so preserved the old
Dutch relationship. The bomb-ketch was of about
two hundred tons burthen and built of exceptional
strength, for she had to endure the downward recoil
of the mortar, which was placed forward of the
mainmast. And it was for this reason that the
mast was stepped nothing forward of amidships so
as to allow plenty of space between itself and the
stemhead for firing this mortar. She is, according
to existing prints, rigged in a manner very similar to
the Dutch galleot in Storck's painting, except that
the bomb-ketch carries a square topsail above her
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108 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
lateen, and both topsail and topgallant above her main,
a water-sail being also shown l^low the bowsprit
From this the galleot in the course of the next
few decades altered her character by changing her
lateen to a gaff sail with boom, and by doing the
same with the mainsail, but setting the square-sail
when running. At the same time, since the fore-
and-aft rig was being adopted so thoroughly, it also
overcame the galleot, and the somewhat diminutive
mizzen was stepped further inboard and its sail area
increased, in order, doubtless, to spread the canvas
over the spars with greater evenness, and prevent the
mainsail m)m being of a size that might be too
unhandy. With this seventeenth-century galleot must
be compared the early nineteenth-century galleots of
the same coimtry shown in the engraving (Fig. 28)
by E. W. Cooke. In a hundred and fifty years the
change that has taken place has been less in respect
of hull than of rig. Gone are the lateen and the
water-sails. For the loose-footed mainsail that of the
contemporary cutter with its boom and gaff has been
borrowed, and so also with regard to the ketch ; but
it is curious to find that the vangs of those seven-
teenth-century Dutch yachts that used to besport
themselves in naval reviews are still retained on the
mainsail, as will be immediately noticed. In the
galleot to the left of Cooke's picture the sails are
set, but in that of the foreground of the illustration
the sails have been stowed and the gaff has been
detached from the head of the sail and hoisted, pos-
sibly to act as a derrick, in handling the cargo.
But notice that the lower yard is cock-a-billed and
is used for setting a high square-sail. This sail, as
in the Revenue-cutters of the eighteenth and nine-
teenth centuries, was not kept bent to the yard as
we should have expected, but when in disuse was
taken off, so that the yard was quite bare. For our
convenience Cooke has shown the square-sail hanging
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 109
up to dry in the background behind the galleot
wnich is nearest to us. Observe, too, that in addi-
tion to this course and its yard the early nineteenth-
century galleot sets a square topsail, and for con-
venience this is not detached from its yard, but the
crew when sent aloft to stow get into the foot-ropes
and slack away the sail so that it runs along after
the manner of the contemporary stunsail. A neat
stow is then made of it in the centre of the yard,
close to the mast, and the sail can be run out along
its yard again when desired. The foresail has been
stowed to the forestay, and the bowsprit, after the
chain bobstay and tackle have been slacked off, has
been hauled up. We have repeatedly referred, during
the course of these pages, to the extraordinarily close
relationship existing between the modern Thames
barge and the Dutchmen, so that here we shall not
wonder that our countrymen have copied the
Hollanders in another item.
Those two stern windows seen in these galleots,
or ketches as we should call them in our country,
are very characteristic of the Netherlands craft, as also
is the hatchet-shaped rudder. In another of Cooke's
etchings a Dutch galleot is seen not merely with
course and square topsail but even with topgallant as
welL And so much space has been left at the yard-
arms that it would appear that stunsails were also set
thereon during suitable winds, for about this time —
1829 — the studding-sails of the ocean-going sailing
vessel were very much in vogue.
I have digressed a little from our period, because
I was anxious to show at once how important an
influence the old Dutch galleots have had on our
fore-and-aft ketches. Among our fishing fleets and
coasters the ketch rig is so plentiful that one cannot
deny that Holland has laid us as a maritime nation
under a very heavy debt of gratitude by showing us
the right way to go about our business, by imparting
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110 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
to us ingenious ideas that we had never thought of.
And if we may go back for a moment and look again
at the Storck picture before we pass on, the reader
will perhaps be interested to notice that even before
the end of the seventeenth century the galleot had,
whilst retaining the lateen mizzen, adopted the gaff
mainsail — ^without boom — but with bonnet laced along
the foot and an arrangement of brails for shortening
in or stowing the sail. These points will be observed
by looking at the white-sailed vessel to the right of
the picture in the middle distance, but partially
hidden by the wooden quay. Her square topsail is
hollowed out along the foot — " goared " is the correct
expression — so as not to chafe against the forestay,
and in the later fore-and-afters of the Revenue-cutter
time we shall find that this "goaring" was carried to
great extremes.
In the illustration (Fig, 24j we have a view of the
Maas near Rotterdam. This is from the painting by
Gerrit Pompe, who is believed to have lived in that
city about the year 1690. The fore-and-after to the
left of the picture shows a yacht of this period with
fi^aff mainsail, but without boom. And Pompe had
been very careful to show us that the yacht carried
a square-sail for running, as in the case of the galleots
that we discussed just now, for part of it is seen cock-a-
billed and projecting from the vessel to windward.
That this was no singular feature is seen from an
examination of other Dutch masters. In the National
Gallery there is a painting by Jan van der Capelle,
who was alive in 1680, which shows a smaller vessel
than this, but with gaff mainsail, bonnet, and no
boom, no jib, but staysail, and a square-sail set for-
ward of the latter boomed out with a light spar.
And there is a similar subject by Ruysdael in the
Boijmans' Museum. We cannot blame the seven-
teenth-century Dutchmen for their love of this square-
sail. It is a most useful article when the wind is fair.
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 111
and it is surprising that its modem employment on
British fore-and-afters is the exception rather than the
rule. True, one does see it set on coasting ketches
and sometimes on yachts, though very rarely in the
case of the latter, especially when cutter-rigged. I
have myself used it with that rig, and found it of the
very greatest utility when a long run was being under-
taken with the wind dead aft or nearly so. It can be
set above a reefed mainsail, and itself reefed and hoisted
again, so that it becomes practically a square topsail.
The old Revenue-cutters found this sail so useful, the
Dutch inland vessels to-day sometimes set it — as, for
instance, when they have a fair wind along the North
Sea Canal — our coasting ketches and schooners also
employ it, that one wonders that smaller fore-and-
afters are so slow to prove its value. It is certainly
not so conducive to speed as that modern invention
the spinnaker. But it is as a cruising-sail that the
square-sail is invaluable for the yachtsman. It is much
handier, and can be carried for a much longer time than
the spinnaker — in fact for as long as it is safe to run
at all
The line-drawing in Fig. 25 has been sketched from
a Dutch print of the year 1770, which is preserved in
the Water Tower Museum at Dordrecht, This craft is
a kof-tjalk. She has the older spritsail laced to the
mast as well as staysail, but as she is running free the
jib has not been set. It will be observed that one
brailing-line is shown from the leach of the mainsail
to its throat in order to shorten in canvas. The square
topsail is there, well-goared this time for the reason
that we explained just now, and the barren-yard below,
as it used to be called at this period on English full-
rigged ships, is employed so that the topsail may set
the better. But notice also that in the light, free air
the Dutchman recognises that he needs a boom: for
one of the crew has taken one of those very long boat-
hooks which are found on every sailing craft of Holland,
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112 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
and are used with so much skill for entering or leaving
a lock, or for getting alongside a quay. In this picture
the man has sought to improvise a boom by thrusting
Fig. 26.— Kop-Tjalk.
This was^ sketched from an old print of the year 1770, preserved in the Water
Tower Museum, Dordrecht Notice the light spar used to keep out the boom-
less mainsail.
the boathook into one of the reef cringles on the leach
of the sail.
Perhaps a better idea of the sail-plan may be
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 118
gathered from the illustration (Fig. 26), which has
been faithfully copied from the celebrated volume
published in the year 1768 by Frederick Hennik Af.
Chapman, entitled Architectura Navalis Mercatoria,
and was one of the most important aujd authoritative
Fig. 26.— Sail Plan of Eof-Tjalk.
Taken from Chapman's Architeetwra Navalit, published in 1768.
Observe the single brailing-line to the mainsail.
works on naval architecture which the eighteenth cen-
tury produced. It will be seen that it is no accident
that there is only a single brailing-line, but that this
was the custom of the time, and that two rows of reef
points were provided, as well as one on the staysail.
The other features, when compared with this present
H
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114 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
tjalk, are so apparent that we need not detain the
reader's attention in this connection, but may pass on.
We have (Fig. 27) an interesting sketch that was
made in the Kijks Museum of a beautiful little model
that must appeal immistakably to all who have the
Fig. 27.— Enkhuizbn Beubtmak.
From a model in the Bijks Masenm. A * ' beartman " is a cargo-carrier,
and Enkhuizen is on the Zayder Zee.
slightest affection for ships. This represents an Enk-
huizen "beurtman," or freight-carrier, regularly em-
ployed in traffic to and from the little port in that
north-east comer of North Holland on the Zuyder
Zee facing Friesland. Nowadays many a beurtman is
propelled by Kromhout motors belching forth their
paraffin exhaust, and certainly less beautiful if more
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 115
useful to commerce than their older sisters. But
happily there are still plenty of these sailing traders
domg their useful woric in connecting the ports of
the Zuyder Zee with Amsterdam.
They must needs be strong and seaworthy so as to
stand the dangerous waves which soon get up on this
shallow tidal water which has hollowed out the ** South
Sea" (so called in comparison with the Noord Zee).
They must be so designed that they may take the
ground without heeling over, and they must be big-
bellied because they have to carry all the cargo possible.
And they must have a shallow draught because of the
few feet in the harbour. Thus we get in this vessel a
modification based on the existing Dutch tjalk. The
date of this model is about that of Cooke's etchings,
within eleven years. To be precise, this vessel here
reproduced belongs to the year 1818, and shows the
sprit-rig at its fimest development for comparatively
smaller craft. Fiddle-blocks are seen to be used in
connection with the nmners, the vangs, and the sprit-
tackle. There is a more complicated and more efficient
arrangement of the brailing-Iine than in the kof-tjalk
of some years earlier, so that the sail can be shortened
in quickly and effectively. But a topsail is now set,
and not a square one nor of the hybrid type which a
Thames barge to-day sets. On the contrary, so far
have improvements advanced that it is indeed a fore-
and-aft sail in every sense, and triangular in shape.
The topsail ends at the peak just as me head of our
modern spinnakers, and this triangular addition to the
sail-area of the craft makes the general shape of the
mainsail thus to approximate very closely to the original,
almost square, form of the sail which existed before
ever a staysail was employed and the old una-like
rig was in vogue.
On deck forward will be seen^ the windlass and
handspike which are still used on the botters, tjalks,
and other Dutch sailing craft, though in the most
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116 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
modem types an iron windlass, with a larffe handle
and wheel on either side — much resembling the
arrangement which is employed for pumning air
down a diver's pipe — are more common. The mast
is placed well ahead, so as to leave plenty of room
for the hatches and cargo space, abaft of which comes
the cabin for the skipper and his wife and family.
The curve of the ensign staff is in no way exaggerated,
though I have not b^ki able to discover the reason for
this preference for a straight staff. Notice also below
the rubbing strake that there is a ridse which projects
from the hull and continues fore and aft for a short
distance amidships. This is a contrivance, still em-
ployed, on which to rest the weather leeboard when
on a wind, or both leeboards can rest, each on its own
ridge, when the tjalk is not under wav. The reader
wiU be struck by the high stem and the considerable
amount of sheer. It is now many a long year fix>m
the days of medievalism, yet the Dutchman of even
the twentieth century cannot get away from this
custom entirely. It still shows itself m the steel
tjalks and haaks as it did in the highly pooped ships
of the early sixteenth century and the sading craft of
a few years later. For, above all things, the Dutch
are a conservative race, and the seamen are the least
susceptible to change of any living people. The tiller
has a cleat and a block fixed at its end, so that a line
may be rove when the wind is stronff or the skipper
wants to run forward, perhaps, to lend a hand in
getting up the anchor. 1 have watched a whole fleet
of about thirty of these sailing craft getting under way
in the weird darkness just before dawn. There is one
continuous clanking of windlasses and cables until the
anchor is broken out, and then with silent, ghost-like
effect the whole fleet one by one goes sailmg down
the river in the cool morning breeze and the fast-
swishing ebb. Perhaps an occasional shout from the
skipper to the hands forward, or the thud of the
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 117
muddy chain on the damp decks, and that is all the
sound one hears. In a few minutes the anchorage,
which last night was a forest of masts and weather-
vanes, is now empty, and there is nothing but the tide.
Fig. 2a— Paviljobn-Pom.
From a model in the Rijks Museam.
In the next model seen in Fig. 28, which belongs
to the year 1784, and is one of the exhibits in the Rijks
Museum, we have a paviljoen-pom called the Prince
of Orange. Here, though the date is earlier than the
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118 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
last-mentioned models we have the fore-and-aft rig in
almost its final Dutch development — final, that is to
say, in everything except a few minor alterations that
have come through the most recent years. The sprit
has gone altogether, but the long gafF of the Admiralty
yachts has been shortened and curved. A boom is
added to the loose-footed mainsail, and there is also a
topping-lift as well.
In many a respect this vessel resembles the Enk-
huizen craft, and yet there are differences. The word
"paviljoen" signifies **tent" or "pavilion," and the
characteristic of this ship is her captain's ** pavilion "
or cabin placed right an;, formed by the poop deck,
with its windows at the side and the stem. The
chimney in the fore-deck, with its cowl, is of the pre-
vailing Dutch type, and' can be seen any day on the
two or three Dutch eel craft which are always to be
found at their moorings off" Billingsgate. Observe that
the head of the foresail ends not m a cringle but in
a diminutive yard. The foresail also works up and
down the stay, not by means of hanks but like the
mainsail with a lacing. The decoration on the top of
the rudder-head is not unusual, and one frequently
finds some such device as a gilded lion there placed.
It may seem not a little extraordinary that only a
single shroud should be given on either side to sup-
port the mast ; but it should be noticed that the
runners are stout and provide a good deal of aid in
taking ofi^ the strain. The main sheet works on an
iron horse, and has a couple of blocks. There is a
lower Une of reef points on the mainsail, whilst the
upper row consists of holes for lacing. The dead-
eyes, far from being any modem development, are
among the oldest of the ship's equipment ; for on the
largest mediaeval sailing craft "dead men's e}nie," as
they were caUed, were in regular use, and are so named
in many a ship's inventory of Tudor times. The fore-
hatch is much like a box in shape, and the lid, which
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 119
is fixed, works on hinges, so that it cannot get adrift.
The pair of substantiid bollards, one of which is seen
on either bow, are typically Dutch, and essential when
so much work has to be done warping in and out of
dock or checking the vessel's way wnen coming along-
side a quay. It will be observed that, contrary to a
custom which obtained on many of the bigger fore-
and-afters, the jib does not work on a stay. It is
hoisted by a halyard in the usual manner, and has a
traveller on the bowsprit. The word "paviljoen" we
have already explained, but the word " bom " or
^* pom " is given in Holland to various kinds of craft.
For instance, in addition to the type before us, one
finds it applied to such sailing vessels as the Scheven-
ingen pinks. As to the ori^ of this expression I
cannot obtain any definite inrormation, though I sus-
pect that it may have come into use with the time
when the " bombe " or " bomb-ketches " were in their
glory. Remembering the historic prerogative which
the sailor-man has always possessed for conftising
nautical terminology, one can easily imagine that
even a cutter-rigged craft might have certain peculiar
features which would cause her to be designated by a
title which rightly belonged only to a galleot or ketch.
A very interesting type of cutter will be found in
Fig. 29, which has idso been sketched from a delight-
ful little model in the Rijks Museum. She is a very
beamy, big-bellied craft, with bluff rounded bows and
stem. The ledge on which to rest the leeboard is here
again seen, and fixed cat-heads are discernible on either
bow for the anchor work. It should be remarked that
at this time the hempen cable was still employed for
the big ships of war, and so the custom obtained on the
smaller craft This cutter is well supplied with cannon,
including a heavy chasing-piece and a quick-firer on
the port gunwale, and was probably employed in
protecting the Revenues, although her bulky hull
would have been anything but speedy. Her gear is
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Fio. 29. — Dutch Cutteb.
From the model in the Rijks Maseam. Notice the method of stowing
the lower oonrte ap and down the mast
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FORE-AND-AFT KIG IN HOLLAND 121
deserving of attention. She is indeed cutter-rigged,
but she carries not merely a square-topsail, but one
also that has a gaff. The former is stowed to the
yard, as we saw in Cooke's picture of the Dutch
galleots. The course which is set on the lower yard
when a fair wind favoured the ship is not stowed to
the yard, but is rolled up and laid up and down the
mast forward. By a system of blocks and lines it can
be readily hauled out along the yard when required.
As we said above, it was the same method which was
employed in the case of the English Revenue-cutters,
and the practice is still continu^ to this day on some
of the Dutch steam tugs which are found in the neigh-
bourhood of Rotterdam and Dordrecht.
The staysail of this model is equally neatly stowed to
the stay, and the mainsail, which has its gaff and boom,
is stowed by brailing the sail to the mast after the
manner of the bi^ ships' driver. There is no ensign
staff shown on this model, but the Dutchman cannot
resist an opportunity for showing his love of a curve in
the manner he has attached the ensign to the peak.
One very curious feature, which is rare, should be
noticed in the gaff-topsail. We are accustomed to
seeing a mainsail brailed, yet never a topsail. How-
ever, in this example a couple of brailing-lines are
shown, so that in the advent of a sudden squall or
when stowing canvas immediately if coming alongside
a smuggler, the upper no less than the lower sail-area
can be diminished to nothing at all. It is just such
details as these which make the craft of Holland of
such enormous interest. The Dutch have never been
water-shy. They live and die on their craft, they take
their families with them; their sympathies are with
ships and the things connected therewith, and have no
yearning for the shore. Their women-folk acquire
the ship-sense; the smallest child when he sees yoii
sailing up to a tjalk (^ quay knows what is expected of
him. He or his mother is ready to catch your line and
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122 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
to make fast. He will watch your manoeuvres with
the eye of a critic, for his mind is moulded by such
expenence. And so, because all through his life the
Dutch shipman is ever concentrating his thoughts on
his floating home, and how he can improve her, how he
can make ner more useful for all the services for which
she was intended, she is, in spite of her conservatism in
hull and the main features of her gear, always being
made better by the addition of articles of apparently
small import. If there is a device that is good for
labour-saving the Dutchman adopts it, whether it is
an improved winch or a novel arrangement for his
main-sheet. He goes on getting the last ounce of
value from his craft, because whilst he is always im-
proving his ship he has never got her to ultimate
perfection.
The prejudice in England, for instance, against
building sailing craft of steel does not hold good in
Holland. Nor does he always feel it necessary to send
to Rotterdam or Dordrecht to have his new steel tjalk
built. He has enough space at the end of his garden
between his cottage and the river, so two or three men
will go on hammering in rivets until at length the
vessel is built, and one day she will be launched broad-
side on at the top of the spring tide. She has been
built far more cheaply than we in England could make
such a craft, and she will go on steaduy year after year
doing her work up and down the waterways of the
Netherlands, carrying hay, vegetables, or whatever
cargoes may be intended for her. To any one outside
Holland there is always something new to examine in
the Dutchman, always some new " gadget " to admire
and take note of, for Holland has done more for the
development of the fore-and-after than all the other
nations of the world put together. She has giveh the
lead, and others have followed after.
"To no man," says Mr. Warington Smyth in his
delightful Mast and Sail^ " to no man is the greatness
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 128
of our debt to the Dutch more forcibly brought home
than to him who has widely used the sea, m whom
something akin to reverence springs up as he roams,
and finds everywhere about the globe the footprints of
this steadfast sailor race. The very sea-terms in every-
day use all across the seven seas, alike by Briton,
Yankee, and every northern race, were in the mouths
of De Ru^er and those other great admirals who
fought agamst us in the seventeenth century. Cer-
tai^y no western race is so amphibious as the Dutch,
and no land animal except the duck takes so readily to
navigation."
Although, as we shall see presently, the yacht came
to us in England from Holland in the seventeenth cen-
tury, yet it cannot be said that from that time onwards
without a break the fore-and-aft pleasure vessel steadily
improved until now. There followed before long a
decided slump, which continued for some time, and all
the good that our own nation has done in the service of
the rore-and-aft yacht has been within the space of about
sixty years — ^from about the year 1850 to the present
day ; whereas the Dutch, as far back as the late six-
teenth century, began to give us the proper data on
which to base our improvements in naval architecture
and rig in so far as they affect the fore-and-after. For
most of two hundred years we were content to follow
blindly and without question along the lines which the
Dutch had laid down for us. There was little or no
contribution on our part in regard to the science and
art of the fore-and-after. We accepted the facts as
they came to us from the other side of the North Sea,
and we remained content at that. When the reaction
set in sixty years ago there was little to work upon
except the Dutch heritage. You can easily see wnat
is meant if you examine the sea-pictures of the early
nineteenth century. Bluff-bowed, cumbrous, heavily
constructed vessels they were, lacking the natural
beauty of the original Dutch types, and often as not
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124 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
employed for general purposes, whereas the prototypes
had been designed to suit special objects, special waters,
and special harbours. When you look mto the im-
provements of lines, sails, and gear of the fishing fleets,
pilot craft, and yachts of Great Britain as they are
to-day, you will find that these superiorities are scarcely
more than sixty years old, and not always that. The
Hollander began at the beginning, because he found
that with his canals and rivers he was not making the
best of his opportunities. He began by improving the
rig of southern Europe. England years after beffan
only where the Dutcn left off, and commenced ner
worik not as in any sense a creator but as adapter ; and
that, if you are a careful observer of English history in
general, has been our great characteristic for the whole
of our national career. From the time when the Dutch
seven provinces had united themselves into a powerful
republic their prosperity seems properly to have begun.
In place of being a mere inferior to Spain, she became
the latter's rivfu. The low-lying land between the
North and Zyyder Seas was fidl too small to contain
the energies of its inhabitants, and so they spread
themselves, roamed over the seas, fought, traded, and
colonised ; trained a magnificent race of admirals, sea-
men, and fishermen ; looked to their own internal
water-traffic, and did wonders in the perfecting of the
most suitable means of transport.
Before we close this chapter we must not omit to
mention the origin of the smack. The subsequent
alteration of the English smack's rig we shall deal
with in due course. But in the early eighteenth
century a "smak-schip" or "semaque" was similar
to a " semale " or " smal-schip." The smal-schip was
a narrower craft, whereas the smak-schip was so large
that she was known in Flanders as the " wydt-schip.'*
These two vessels diflFered in size, but they were similar
in build. The accompanying illustration in Fig. 81,
which is taken from a volume published in Amsterdam
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 125
in 1786, will indicate the general appearance of the
smal-schip. She was made intentionally narrow in
order that she might be able to pass through Gouda
(pronounced " Hooda ") lock. Gouda, it may be men-
tioned, is a few miles to the north-east of Rotterdam
at the junction of the canal which joins the Ijssel,
and is on the regular line of water patronised by the
traffic between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, For
some distance after emerging from the lock when
bound towards Amsterdam the canal is exceedingly
narrow as it passes through the town. On both
sides the houses rise up without a break, so that it
is utterly impossible to sail, and one has either to
quant or be towed through by trek-paard or perhaps
by hand. To make matters still more unpleasant
the modem motor cargo craft come running round
the bend and leave little enough room to squeeze
through. Altogether for a mile or so it is a trying
time mr the helmsman.
But there is also a duplicate and wider, though
less direct canal running outside by the walls of the
town, and, says the eighteenth century authority, the
semaques have to pass along that canal by the other
lock. Thus the smal-schip went one way and the
smack the other. These craft in the times of which
we are speaking used often to find their way from
Amsterdam as far south as Antwerp and other places
in Flanders. They carried merchandise to the big
ships, and brought other cargoes in return. The
rudder of this type of vessel was very wide and
heavy, because these craft were not very fine, and
drew little water, and this small quantity of water
was not capable of doing much to move the rudder.
The more water the rudder moves, continues this
description, so much the better is the vessel con-
trolled. Thus the rudder of the smal-schip is made
very wide, so as to move more water. The illustra-
tion which is here reproduced represents a smal-schip
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126 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
of 58 ft. long, 15 ft. 8 in. wide, the hold varying from
4 ft. to 6 ft. 4 in. deep. But in these measurements
which have been given of Dutch vessels it should be
remembered that the foot was the equivalent of eleven
Rhenish inches. The keel of this vessel was 1 ft. 1 in.
wide and 5 in. thick. She was rigged with a sprit-
mainsail and staysail, but no bowsprit is shown. There
is an old Dutch print in the British Museum that
shows a smak-schip rigged as a fore-and-aft ketch,
and is very similar to toe Dutch galleot which we
saw on an earlier page. She has jib and foresail, a
gaff mainsail which has no boom, but is brailed in like
some of those other vessels we have been looking at
Her mizzen, however, has both gaff and boom. She
is seen with course and square topsail set on her main-
mast. A hooy-schip seen in a print of the same date
as the latter is shown as a ketch-rigged vessel, also
being used for carrying hay, and in many points
resembles the previously mentioned ketch. But in
almost each succeeding generation the same name is
used so frequently for different types of craft that
it is better to be able to recognise them by their
rig and general appearance than to rely solely on the
nautical term that happened to be applied at a par-
ticular date. We call some of those vessels which
go forth from Great Yarmouth and other North Sea
ports to gather the harvest of the sea by the name
of smacks. And yet if we compare them with the
smak-schips of Holland in the eighteenth century
there is precious little in common between them.
Thus have we endeavoured to show alike the origin
and the development of the fore-and-aft rig in Holland.
It was essential that we should devote so much space
to that country and her craft, because she is the true
mother of our fore-and-afters of to-di^. But we are
not devoting ourselves exclusively to Dutch shipping,
and may now pass on to show the influence which
Holland was to exercise over the vessels of other
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAJ^D 127
nations during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and the
early part of the twentieth centuries. And we shall
seek to substantiate this influence by the evidence of
contemporary literature and contemporary illustrations,
for it is a period that is full of interest, even though
the interest is spread over a number of types rather
than centred on one or two.
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CHAPTER V
THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS INTO ENGLAND
AI7E showed briefly in the previous chapter that
▼ ▼ during the seventeenth century the time came
when the "persons of rank" in the Low Countries
began to adapt the fore-and-aft rig to their own special
convenience for use both on the North and Zuyder Seas,
as well as for the rivers and canals. For those who had
^ business that took them to Amsterdam, Rotterdam,
Dordrecht, or other cities the yacht was a convenient
and commodious means of transport ; and as the nation
had rapidly increased in wealth, so the number of the
yachts became, before long, considerable. They were
now firmly established among the usual possessions of
the rich of that country.
Now the young man who was presently to become
Charles II. of England had been living on the Conti-
nent ever since he was twenty-one, and a part of this
time had been passed in Holland. It was on May 8,
1660, that he was proclaimed King of England in
Westminster Hall. At that time he was stiU in the
y Low Countries, at Breda ; and, attended by his courtiers,
proceeded to set forth from Breda to get to the Hague
and thence take ship to England. To accomplish this
journey it was essential to proceed by canal and tidal
river, so a number of those gilded yachts with their
high stems and cutter rigs were got together and
courteously placed at the disposal of Charles, his
brother and suite. During his stay abroad the new
king had made himself a great favourite, and his send-
off was in every way hearty and sincere. So soon as
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THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS 129
the news of his proclamation had been made known the
Prince of Orange placed the finest yacht in Holland at
Charles' convenience, and Charles went aboard her.
This vessel had been built in that same year for the
Prince of Orange, but at this time belonged to the
Board of Admiralty of Rotterdam. She was most
beautifully carved and gilded at the stern, over which
a single lantern was hung just by the ensign staff.
There was a roomy cabin here, with adequate head-room
for the accommodation of the royal exiles, and there
was plenty of deck-room for this monarch to walk
about during the inland voyage. The yacht was rigged
with a sprit mainsail and staysail. She doubtless set a
jib also, though in Verschuier's painting, while the bow-
sprit is most clearly shown the jib is not depicted at all,
because it had no doubt just been stowed. Two port-
holes are provided in the stem, which was of the
old-fashioned square shape, while both sides of the ship
were pierced with the more modem circular ports,
througn which the guns are seen projecting. The
yacht also had leeboards and carried a burgee on her
jack-staff, as it was called in England, at the end of the
bowsprit.
We can imagine this royal fleet of yachts, then,
making their way from Breda and out into the Hoi-
landsch Diep, then turning northward past the delight-
fully peaceAil and sylvan Willemsdorp and up the
Dordtsche Kil, where to-day there is a never-ceasing
stream of all sorts of sailing, steam, and motor vessels.
Each of these yachts had its own steward, cooks, and
men who were responsible for the efficiency of the
pantry, the wines, and the cooking. And those vessels
which had not suitable kitchens on board were accom-
panied by other vessels that carried ovens, stoves, and
other cufinary necessities. Captain Clark, in his History
of Yacktingy quotes a contemporary who remarks that
" the stewards of the English lords, though accustomed
to abundance, were astonished thereat, and confessed
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180 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
that they could not conceive by what means twenty or
twenty-nve great dishes for each table could be prepared
on board the yachts and with the motion of the water."
Altogether the Dutch were leaving nothing undone to
make the king's voyage pleasant.
We do not know where the wind was on that May
day, but it is very probable that it was northerly. Now
it is hardly likely that these yachts would not avail
themselves of a fair tide. And about the month of
May northerly winds are more prevalent than southerly
over this part of Holland. But when wind is against
tide the Hollandsch Diep is not pleasant. The two
forces working against each other kick up an unpleasant
sea, so that this broad water is notorious under such
conditions. Thus the Princess Royal, we learn, was
unable to endure the motion of the yacht, but was com-
pelled to retire, the captain stating that they could not
expect to have better conditions until Dordrecht should
have been reached, where there would be shelter. And
so on they sailed until at last they arrived at Rotter-
dam, where they were to remain ror a short time. In
the Rijks Museum there has happily been preserved a
very fine painting of this incident by Lieve Verschuicr,
who was born and buried in Rotterdam, and was thirty
years old when Charles II. arrived. In this picture we
see the Maas studded with all kinds of craft to welcome
the young king. It is from this picture that the
accomi>an}ring 3cetch (Fig. 80) has been made, which
shows in greater detau than is possible by means of
photograph the yacht on which Charles was proceeding
on his inland voyi^e. There is a fiill-rigged ship seen
in the original which is firing a salute, and the yacht is
replying with the cannon at the bow. In the Rijks
original some of the other yachts of the fleet are shown
also; and numerous small rowing-boats, boiers, and
other craft full of eager sightseers are coming forth
to mancBUvre round the yacht.
With their mingled splashes of gold, of blue, orange,
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f -'2)
Fig. 30.— Thb Yaoht in which Chablbb II. Sailso.
This was the vessel whioh carried his Majesty from Breda to Rotterdam after his
proclamation in England as king. The sketch is taken from Verschnier's
painting in the Rijks Moseum, Amsterdam.
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182 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
and red, this fleet of yachts with its English royalty,
their courtiers, attendants, cooks, and servants must
have looked striking even to the citizens of Rotterdam.
At length the yacht passed from the waters of the Maas
and its powerful tide through the lock into the canal
which connects this river with Delft, and presently
she continued her voyage and arrived at the latter
town, which is but a short distance from the Hague.
Just outside the Hague lies the North Sea village of
Scheveningen, though to-day it is a village no longer,
but a cosmopolitan tourist resort Charles proceeded
to Scheveningen, was rowed off from the sandy beach
in a boat, and went on board the English warship
Nasehy on May 22. With the rest of the fleet this
vessel had arrived off the Dutch coast a few days earlier.
She was now re-named the Royal Charles^ and on May
24, sixteen days after Charles' proclamation, she set
sail for England with her king on ooard, and on May 26
landed him safely at Dover. Thus, briefly, had been
the royal progress by yacht and warship from Breda to
England.
Now this is no place to examine the personal character
of him who has ever been best known to posterity as the
gay king. Apart from one consideration we are not
concemai witn his failings or virtues in this present
volume. But among his pleasures there stands out
conspicuously that which can only be obtained from
ships and the sea. With him sailing was as great a
Eassion as were any of his unfortunate amours. When
e was sixteen years old and was staying in the Channel
Isles but three years before his father's execution, he
displayed his affection for this sport, and used to go
sailing in a boat about those rocky islands. Whilst he
was in Holland he must have often been struck by the
little fore-and-afters dodging in and out, and his en-
thusiasm keenly aroused, as it is in the case of every
man who is born with that ineradicable attraction
towards nautical things, which neither time nor cir-
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INTO ENGLAND 188
cumstance can modify, but will continue even till the
grave.
The cruise from Breda to Delft had especially im-
pressed this enthusiast. He had both enjoyed the trip
itself and intensely admired the yacht which had carried
him in such surprising comfort and luxury. "The
king found his yacht so convenient and comfortable/'
writes the contemporary we have just quoted, " that he
remarked, while discoursing with the aeputies, that he
might order one of the same style, so soon as he should
arrive in England, to use on the river Thames. Mr.
Van Vlooswyck, Burgermaster of Amsterdam, and one
of the deputies of the province of Holland, taking
occasion to do a considerable service to his fatherland,
said to the king that lately a yacht has been built in
Amsterdam which was almost of the same size, and at
least as handsome, and he took the liberty of presenting
it to his Majesty, praying him to do a favour to the
Ma^strate by accepting it."
Thus it came about that before the winter of that
same year of his accession a yacht was purchased by
the Hollanders from the Dutch East India Company ;
was taken in hand and made fit for a kins, her cabins
being decorated, her stem beautifriUy gilded, and the
best artists of the day employed to paint magnificent
pictures or to carve sculpture both within and without
the yacht. This, then, was the Mary^ the first yacht
that England ever possessed, the ancestor of that long
line of descendants which include the Alarms the Thistles^
Meteors^ VaUcyries^ White Heathers^ Shamrocks^ and
many another famous craft within living memory.
The Mary measured 52 ft. long, 19 ft beam, 7 ft.
7 in. deep, drew 10 ft. of water, and worked out at 100
tons burthen, though we must not forget that the ton-
nage reckoning of those days was a little erratic. She
had leeboards, carried eight guns and a crew of twenty.
Now, so far no one has ever succeeded in finding a
design or picture that could truthfully be said to repre-
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184 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
sent this first Mary, although Mary 11. is reproduced
in this volume. But we ne^ not be in doubt as to the
appearance of this first Anglo-Dutch craft ; for remem-
htfing that we saw in a preceding paragraph just now
that ** lately a yacht has been built in Amsterdam which
was almost of the same size, and at least as handsome "
as the vessel in which the Breda to Delft trip was taken,
and that in the Verschuier picture we have a detailed
idea of her lines and rig, we cannot go tax wrong if we
say* that the Mary was practically the counterpart of
this yacht which has been reproduced from the Vers-
chuier painting. She has leeboards and four guns each
side like the Jfary, and would scan to be about the
dimensions just given.
Just exactly when the Mary crossed the North Sea
I cannot ascertain, but it would seem that by the middle
of August she had arrived in the London river, for under
date of August 15, 1660, Pepys gives the following in
Ins Diary: —
** To the office, and after dinner by water to White
Hall, where I found the King gone this morning by 5
of the clock to see a Dutch pleasure-boat below bridge.''
If that is not the Mary that Charles got up at day-
break to go and see, then she was certainly here by
November, for on the eighth of that month the same
genial diarist has the entry which shows that he himself
went aboard the new yacht at Deptford : —
" November 8, 1660.
^' In the afternoon Commissioner Pett and I went
aboard the yacht, which indeed is one of the finest
things that ever I saw for neatness and room in so
smafi a vesseL Mr. Pett is to make one to outdo this
for the honour of his country, which I fear he will scarce
better."
But under date of January 18 of the next year Pepys
was inclined to alter his mind, for he came to the con-
clusion that Pett's yacht which he was building for the
king ^<will be a pretty thing and much beyond the
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Fig. 31.
Semale Ship
In the eighteenth century the semaque or smack was similar 10
the above craft, but the smak-schip was somewhat wider than the
semale-schip.
Fig. 32. p. 167
Yorkshire Billy-Boy
After the engraving by E. W. Cooke. Few British craft exhibit their Diitch ^
ancestry so clearly as this type of vessel.
Google
. ••• • •
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INTO ENGLAND 185
Dutchman's." She ttras to have sails made of Holland
duck, and was ballasted with lead shot brought from
the Tower of London. The Petts were a family of
shipbuilders which were employed in the service of the
English sovereigns from the time of Henry VIIL even
to tiie reign of William III. and Mary. In their day
and country the different generations of this family
were supreme for the science and art of naval con-
struction. Battleships of unheard-of size the family
had been building through half-a-dozen reigns, and
they had had all sorts of difficult and unprecedented
tasks to perform. But a yacht not one of them had
ever constructed or designed. So great was Charles'
delight in his Dutch Mary that both he and his brother
the Duke of York resolved to have an English yacht.
Thus Peter Pett was entrusted with the building at
Deptford of one for the king, whilst his younger brother
Christopher was to construct the Anne at Woolwich
for the Duke of York. The name of the kipg's yacht
was to be the Jenny ^ and a keen rivalry was started as
to which shipbuilding brother should turn out the better
yacht for one of the two royal brothers.
Already as early as November of the year in which
the Mary came over, we have seen the elder Pett in-
structed to build something better; and two months
later we have seen Pepys going to look at her on the
stocks and much adnuring her. That was in January,
and from a State Paper Domestic of the 12th of April
in that same year, 1661, we find that the other brother
Christopher is busily engaged with the finishing touches
to the Anne. He has had some anxiety in his yard, for
he informs the Navy Commissioners that a gunner of
the Mary — ^not the yacht but a man-of-war of the same
name — ^whilst entering the powder-room of that ship
with a cracked candle, caused the loose powder to take
fire, which burnt the man much but did not harm the
ship. Then he goes on to say that the Duke of York
has ordered his yacht to be launched on Thursday,
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186 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
although the joiners and carvers have not yet completed
their iobs. Perhaps, like many another sailing-man, it
was the first dawn of spring, and an occasional bright
day of sunshine after the winter which caused the royal
yachtsman during that April to hurry along the ship-
builder and get the yacht into the water with the utmost
speed.
But at last both yachts were launched, and the two
{airs of brothers were able to make their comparisons.
iCt us turn to Pepys* Diary again and look at his
remarks dated May 21, 1661 : —
" And then we took boat to Woolwich, where we
staid and gave order for the fitting out of some more
ships presently. And then to Deptford, where we staid
and did the same ; and so took barge again, and were
overtaken by the King in his barge, he having been
down the river with his yacht this day for pleasure to try
it ; and, as I hear. Commissioner Pett's do prove better
than the Dutch one, and than that his brother built."
Thus Peter had beaten Christopher and the king
had beaten the Duke of York. Up till then English
shipbuilding had been indebted to roreign influences in
regard to ship-design and building. Just as in times
long past Scandinavia, then Italy, and Spain had taught
the English shipmen much of what they knew : just,
too, as the French in the following century were to give
them many more ideas, so Holland had imparted some
of her knowledge of shipbuilding and design of men-
of-war, so she had taught the Petts how to design and
build the first English yacht. We can almost see the
Secretary of the Admiralty and Commissioner Pett
climbing in and out of the Mary, taking up boards to
examine her fastenings, tapping the beams here and
there, examining the planking with the eyes of experts.
We can imagine Pepys admiring the Dutch workman-
ship, criticising some novel idea that English ship-
wrights had never yet contemplated, and then poor
vexed Peter Pett scratching his head and wondering
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INTO ENGLAND 187
whether his own capacity, the capacities of his men and
the yard,* would be capable of turning out a craft as
food, let alone superior to the Dutch Mary of the
iast India Company. However, he applied his mind
to it, and he was spurred on as well by national pride
as by the competition of his brother a few miles down
the river, and in the end, as we have seen, Deptford
not only beat Woolwich but Amsterdam as well.
The Mary had created a sensation among those
who interested themselves in shipping matters. She
was something distinctly mi generis. The year 1660
was memoralue not merely for the king^s accession,
for the Restoration of the Stuarts, but for the innova-
tion of the first yacht. " In the year '60,** Sir Anthony
Deane told Pepys, " the Dutch gave his Majesty the
yacht called the Mary^ from whence came the improve-
ment of our present yachts ; for until that time we had
not heard of such a name in England.** And yet it is
certain that the word, if not the type of craft, had been
heard of in this country some years before ; for in a
Collection of Foyages and Travels it was used in 1642
in reference to the Dutch East India Company's yachts,
yet these were more likely to have been full-rigged ships
than cutters or sloops.
The Mary was the first yacht which was ever on
any of the navy lists of England, and she remained
there until the year 1675, when she was cast away near
to Holyhead. The Duke of York*s Anne, which had
the Mary as model, was identical with the Mary in re-
gard to tonnage, beam, and length of keel, but the Anne
was seven inches less in depth, and drew seven feet of
water as against the Mary's ten. She also carried twenty
men like her prototype. It was in this year (1661)
that the Dutch ais^ain presented Charles with a Dutch
yacht. No doubt they were flattered by the amount
of appreciation which their gift had aroused, and this
time they sent a smaller vessel of 85 tons named the
Bezan, which seems, as we shall see presently, to have
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188 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
been used by no one so much as our friend Mr. Pepys,
who was accustomed to spend enjoyable week-ends
cruising in her down the Thames, leaving her somewhere
up the Medway and then returning by land.
For Pepys was as much attached to the new sport
of yachting as was his sovereign. And here is a httle
picture he ffives of an incident, dated June 18, 1661 :
" I went down with mv lord in the barge to Dept-
ford," he writes, " and tnere went on board the Dutch
yacht, and staid there a good while, W. Howe not
being come with my lord's things, which made my
lord very angry. By-and-by he comes, and so we set
sayle, and anon went to dinner, my lord and we very
merry ; and after dinner I went down below, and there
sang, and took leave of W. Howe, Captain Rolt, and
the rest of my friends ; then went up and took leave of
my lord, who gave me his hand, and parted with great
respect So went, and Captain Ferrers with me, into
our wherry ; and my lord did give five guns, all they
had charged, which was the greatest respect my lord
could do me, and of which I was not a little proud.
So, with a sad and merry heart, I left them, sailing
pleasantly from Erith, hoping to be in the Downs
to-morrow early.*'
There were, then, by the summer of 1661, or the
year following Charles' accession, four royal yachts:
the two Dutch yachts, Mary and Bezan^ as well as the
two English yachts, Jenny and Anne. As this little
fleet lay in the Thames they were the sights of the
London river. " Before we had dined," writes Pepys
on September 14, 1661, ** comes Sir R. Slingsby and
his lady, and a great deal of company, to take my wife
and I out by barge to show them the King's and Duke's
yachts . . . and we had great pleasure, seeing all four
yachts, viz. these two, and the two Dutch ones."
We mentioned in a previous chapter that in spite of
their large fleets of yachts, their sham-fights and re-
views, the Dutch do not seem to have been interested
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INTO ENGLAND 189
in yacht-racing ; for these vessels were built rather for
dignity and comfort, for stateliness, and as a means
of transport, thi^^ for racing purposes. But knowing
Charles* type of character as we do, with its intense
love of pleasure, of excitement and novelty, we are not
surprised to find that he instituted the new sport of
yacnt-racing as soon as he had got together this little
fleet of yachts. Whatever else may be said to his
credit or discredit in an age that was notorious for its
general laxity reacting on the Puritanism of the Com-
monwealth period, at any rate the Merry Monarch was
the father of that which we are accustomed to call the
queen of sports. We read just now that Pepys, on his
way back to town from Deptford, was overtaken by the
king in his rowed barse after the sovereign had been
down the river tr3ang his new yacht against the Duke
of York's. Four months later there was a more definite
and decided race, as we may see from Evelyn, who, like
his contemporary, kept and bequeathed to posterity a
diary that is a reflection of the social life in England
during the latter part of the seventeenth century. On
October 1, 1661, Eveljm writes : —
** I sailed this morning with his Majesty in one of
his yachts (or pleasure-boats), vessels not known among
us till the Dutch East India Company presented that
curious piece to the King ; being very excellent sailing-
vessels. It was on a waf^er between his other new
pleasure-boat, built frigate-hke, and one of the Duke of
York's — ^the wager 100/. ; the race from Greenwich to
Gravesend and back. The King lost it going, the
wind being contrary, but saved stakes in returning.
There were divers noble persons and lords on board, his
Majesty sometimes steering himself. His barge and
kitchen-boat attended. I brake fast this morning with
the King at return in his snudler vessel, he being meased
to take me and only four more, who were noblemen,
with him ; but dined in his yacht, where we all eat
together with his Majesty."
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140 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
Thus we have here from one who was an actual
eye-witness a brief but reliable account of the first
of those yachting contests which to-day take place
throughout the summer, week by week, around our
coasts, wherever local conditions permit. From this
first race has descended indirectly the important
series of contests for the America Cup, the still
longer races across the Atlantic from America to
England, to say nothing of the annual races on the
Solent, and especially with Cowes as the starting and
finishing point. I say "indirectly," because there
follows a hiatus, as we shall see presently. But the
revival was to follow a few decades after, and so to
connect the yachting of Charles II. with that of to-day.
With the dimensions of the Mary that we have
given, with the Verschuier sketch before us of an
admittedly similar craft, we have been enabled to
visualise the first Mary. Her glass windows let into
the poop, her gilt, her carvings and interior paintings
we can well imagine, knowmg that they actually
existed. Of the life on board Pepys and Evelyn have
left us glimpses, and the State Fapers Domestic of
this period lend their aid by adding an occasional item
to complete the picture that we are endeavouring to
compose. There is, for instance, still preserved under
date of February 27, 1662, an order for a warrant to
pay John Goulding, captain of the yacht Mary^ the
sum of £500 in lieu of 5000 guilders voluntarily lent
by him to the King at Antwerp in 1667, " during the
time of his necessities '* ; and there is another warrant
of March 11 in the same year to the same effect. It
is just an amusing detail that the royal exile should be
seen borrowing from his future skipper a sum of
money which apparently was not paid back for at
any rate five years. Belonging to November 27 of
the same year, 1662, there is also a State Paper wherein
Captain James Lambert recommends Edw. Janson to
be mate of the Duke of York's yacht.
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INTO ENGLAND 141
The second Dutch yacht, the BezaUy which, we
saw, was received as a present also, was of 85 tons
burthen. In length she was as much as 18 feet
shorter than the Mary^ and drew less than half the
Mary's draught of water. The Bezaris exact dimen-
sion's were: Length, 84 ft.; breadth, 14 ft. ; depth,
7 ft. ; draught, 8 ft. 6 in. ; and her crew con-
sisted of four men. More than this we do not know,
but I am inclined to think she was probably of the
boier type. Illustrations of this species of craft will
be foimd later on in this volume.
So pleased had Charles II. become with his two
Dutch and two English yachts, that in the year 1662 we
find him anxious for another. Just as his Deptford
Jenny had been built to beat the Amsterdam Mary^ so
now he evidently wanted an English-built Bezan. Since
Peter Pett had done better than his brother with the
Jenny^ so now he was commissioned to build the
Jamaie. This craft measured 81 ft. long, \2\ ft.
wide, drew aj ft. of water, was of 25 tons burthen,
and carried a crew of four. She was slightly smaller
than the Bezan, but otherwise so similar that we
cannot resist the temptation to believe that she was
built to show herself the superior of the Dutchman.
Perhaps this is the craft of which Pepys speaks
in the following account belonging to September 5,
1662:—
" Up by break of day at 5 o'clock, and down by
water to Woolwich ; in my way saw the yacht lately
built by our virtuosoes (my Lord Brunkard and others
with the help of Commissioner Pett also) set out from
Greenwich with the little Dutch Bezan to try for
master ; and before they got to Woolwich the Dutch
beat them half-a-mile (and I hear this afternoon that,
in coming home, it got above three miles) ; which all
our people are glad of."
The Jamaie^ it should be added, was built at
Lambeth and was designed by Charles himself.
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142 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
For it must be remembered that apart from his
personal keemiess for sailing he possessed for that
time a really great amount of knowledge in matters
connected with ships and the sea. To a natural
instinct for such matters he brought a mind that was
ever receptive of new ideas, and during his sojourn in
Holland ne could scarcely help assimilating some of
the theories and practice of the then greatest maritime
power in existence.
The ^pular mind is nowadays so much interested
in that kmg's follies and weaknesses that it forgets the
other side to his character. He showed a true zeal
for his navy, over which his brother the Duke of
York and the future James II., a real fighting
seaman as well as yachtsman, was head. No English
sovereign had taken such a personal interest in the
service. It was during his reign that the Greenwich
Royal Observatory and the Nautical Almanac were
founded, and a new impulse given to astronomy, to
navigation, and to naval architecture, and the begin-
ning of scientific inquiry instead of a mere bund
following of existing conventions. Fresh types of
craft were introduced into the navy, and in general
the foundations were being laid for the next
generations to build upon.
From the incentive which had been given during
the first couple of years of his reign, yachts of
various sizes began to be built in the EngUsh yards,
and a complete list of these can be found in the
navy lists of the time which still exist. The smaller
types, such as the two just mentioned, were now rarer
than those of bigger tonnage. It is true that in 1678
another 25-tonner named the Isle of Wight was built
at Portsmouth, her dimensions being 81 ft long,
12} ft. beam, and drawing 6 ft. of water. And
two years prior to that a yacht called the Queen-
borough was built by Pett at Chatham, with a tonnage
of twenty-nine ; and there was even the Minion^ smaller
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INTO ENGLAND 148
stiU, whose burthen was only 22 tons ; length, 28 ft ;
beam, 12 ft 4 m. ; depth, 4 ft. 9 in. ; and draught
4 ft But it must not be imagined that all these
yachts were mere pleasure-boats. The bigger ones,
at any rate, carried guns as we have seen, and were
reckoned as small units of the navy, which at that
time included in its list such craft as ketches, sloops,
pinks, hoys, and hulks. The Minion even earned
a couple of guns and a crew of four. The ketches
were of about 60 tons, had a crew of thirty-five, and
carried six or eight guns.
There is a sloop, for instance, of the name Dunkirk
which has a burthen of 88 tons, carries a crew of five
and a couple of guns. There were also galleots varying
from 108 to 88 tons measurement, the pinks varying
from 55 to 128 tons, and the sloops from 22 to 68 tons.
The sloop Bonetta^ for example, built by Phineas Pett
in 1678, measured 61 ft long, 18 ft. wide, was 5 ft.
deep, drew ^ ft. of water, had a burthen of 57 tons,
and carried a crew of ten and four guns. Between
the dates of the accession and end of Charles' reign •
there were altogether twenty-six yachts numbered in the
navy lists, which, additional to those we have already
mentioned, include the Merlin, the Charhtte, Navy^
Monmouth, Mary IL, Kitchen, Cleaveland, Fvbbs,
Henrietta, Charlotte, Isabella, Katherine, Portsmouth,
Greyhound. We have not space to deal with all of
these separately, but in most of the larger craft there
was a close resemblance to the yacht in the Verschuier
sketch. After the close of his reign the list of yachts
diminishes in number, and on Lady Day of 1686 there
were only sixteen of these in our navy.
The Katherine is mentioned in a State Paper of
January 22, 1662-8, wherein Christopher Pett and
Jonas Shish write to the Navy Commissioners giving
the dimensions of the three chimneys which are being
placed in this royal vessel. Five days later matters
were being taken in hand to get a crew for the new
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144 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
yacht, and Captain William Badiley writes to the Navy
Commissioners from Deptford wishing to appoint a
second master to this yacht, and recommends a man
of the name Gamer. And so these yachts multiplied.
On May 19, 1663, Christopher Pett again writes to
the Commissioners in respect of the latest yacht that
he is constructing. He says that the charge for build-
ing a yacht like the Anne will be £1850, but that
sum would not include the cost of the guns. And
the next day he writes again to say that with regard
to the timber required for the new vacht the carters
have spoiled some by cutting it for their own conveni-
ence ; but Captain Taylor of Wapping, he mentions,
has some very good planks in his yard. And then
there is a little touch which illustrates once again how
keen an enthusiast Charles II. was; for Pett adds
the information that yesterday the king paid a visit
to Woolwich and was inquiring for the •* Keel-piece."
This is significant, and the impetuous monarch was
doubtless anxious to see Pett make a beginning and
get the keel laid without delay.
But some delay still continued, probably owing to
the scarcity of timber, for a few weeks later, on
June 2, Pett writes again to the Commissioners,
sending an estimate "of the eharc^e for building a
new yacht for the King," the total cost of which is
to be as in the estimate above. Pett mentions that
he has abated the charge from what was allowed for
the king's yacht Katherine and the Duke's yacht
AnnCf because his Majesty intends to have the
cabins hung with gilded leather instead of carved
work on the sides. There is yet another reference
in these State Papers three months later when
Christopher Pett again writes to the Commissioners
to say that repairs are needed to the glass windows
of the Duke of York's yacht Anne^ which is ordered
to sail for France on Monday.
On September 6, 1663, Captain James Lambert
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INTO ENGLAND 145
of the Anne yacht writes to inform the Commis-
sioners that he cannot land Madame Fiennes before
Friday or Saturday, but will take her on board at
Dover on Thursday. He has been with the Queen-
Mother, but, he adds with a distinctly human touch,
her commands are too tedious to write. He begs
orders to Master Sheppard to set off with all despatch
to attend the Duke of York at Southampton, and to
William Fasby, master of the hoy Kitchen^ to sail
with him, as there will be want of the Kitchen there.
This last-mentioned vessel was doubtless used as tender.
There is also an Admiralty Paper of December 9 in
the same year, sent from Deptford, in which we are
furnished with the list of gunners and cooks entered
on board the Katharine and the Anne.
In the year 1906 two interesting historical docu-
ments were sold in London which are of sufficient
bearing on the subject to merit quoting here in full
The first is dated July 8, 1674, from Hampton Court,
and is addressed by Charles to the Navy Commissioners
with reference to the appointment of a new Master
Gimner to "our yacht the Mary." In addition to
the royal signature it is countersigned by our friend
Samuel Pepys, and reads as follows : —
"Charles R.
" Our will and pleasure is that you cause Rowland
Roberts to be entred Ma' Gunner of our Yacht the
Mary in the roome of [hiatus] Soshley whom Wee
thinke fitting to discharge from that Employm\
together with such allowance of Wages & Victualls
for himselfe & servant as is proper & usuall for y^
Ma' Gunner of our said Yacht. Given at Our Honor
of Hampton Court this 8^ of July 1674.
" To the Principall Officers
and Com" of Our Navy.
" By his Ma** Comand,
"S. PfiPYS."
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146 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
Another of the yachts in Charles' service was
named the Fvbbs, which also was the familiar royal
nickname for the somewhat beamy Duchess of Ports-
mouth, of whom the kins was notoriously fond.
The yacht was also beamy, being of the three beams
to length type, and her measurements worked out
at 68 ft. long, 21 ft wide, her draufi[ht being
nearly 8 ft., her burthen 148 tons, and her dept£
9| ft. She was built in 1682 by Phineas Pett at
Greenwich. If we may for a moment pass out of
Charles' reign into the following we shall be able to
adduce this other royal document in connection with
the seventeenth-centuiT royal yachts of our nation.
This order is dated Dpom Whitehall to the Com-
missioners, directing them to pay the wages of the
officers and crews of the yachts Fvhhs and Navy.
It is signed by James II. and again countersigned
by Pepys, and reads thus : —
" James R.
"Our will and pleasure is, That you cause the
Wages due to the Officers and Company of Our
Yachts the Fubhs and Navy to the 25**" of March
1686, to be paid as fast as you shall be enabled
thereto, by moneys to be specially appointed to that
furpose, by the Lords Commissioners of our Treasy.
'or which this shall be your Warrant. Given at
Our Court at Whitehall this 7*^ Aprill, 1687.
" By His Ma*» Comand,
«< S Pbpys "
** To Our Trusty & Welbeloved
S' John Tippetts & S' Rich^ Haddock
Kn** & James Sotheme Esq"
Commiss' of Our Navy."
The Navy^ it may be mentioned, was a 74-tonner,
and was built by Sir Anthony Deane at Portsmouth
in 1671. She measured 48 ft. long, 17| ft. beam, and
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INTO ENGLAND 147
drew just over 7 ft. of water. The appellation seems
to our mind somewhat strange to give to a yacht. The
origin of the Fvhbs we have already explained. The
Katherine was named, of course, after Charles' wife,
Katherine of Portugal. The Dunkirk was also a
reasonable name, for that port was at one time an
English possession, and was only sold to the French
in the year 1662. It will be recollected that this
transaction made Clarendon very impopular, for it
was said that he had been bribed, and a new house
that he was building was nicknamed ^^ Dunkirk
House." And so we might go on and find the
cause of the names that were given to the various
other yachts. But there are two other references
about this time in Pepys' Diary which we must not
omit. The first belongs to July 26, 1662, and reads : —
" This afternoon I had a letter from Mr. Creed,
who hath escaped narrowly in the King's yacht, and
got safe to the Downs after the late storm ; and that
there the King do tell him that he is sure that my
Lord is landed at Callis safe."
As to which of these yachts is here referred to we
know not, but she was most probably one of the larger
craft We called attention just now to the fact that
the king was contemplating building a new yacht, and
that Pett had been asked to send in estimates for the
cost thereof. Her name was the Henrietta^ after
Charles' mother. From the following extract in Pepys'
Diary we see another instance that the king was
content not only to be im amateur helmsman, but had
certain ideas of his own in respect of naval architecture,
and was wishfid to give to these a concrete shape.
**For," writes the Secretary of the Admiralty, **we
walked to White Hall, and meeting the King, we fol-
lowed him into the Park, where Mr. Coventnr and
he talked of building a new yacht, which the lUng is
resolved to have built out of his privy purse, he having
some contrivance of his own."
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148 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
This " contrivance " consisted of lead sheathing, as
we shall mention presently. It is possible that Charles
may have also been anxious to minimise the excessive
sheer of the day, and to diminish the amomit of top-
hamper, for it was no rare custom about this time to
cut one of the ships of the navy down a deck and make
her less top-heavy. On the other hand, it is also pos-
sible that Charles realised that he could get an improve-
ment to the hull if he gave his yachts less beam and a
proportionately greater length. It is indeed evident
enough that the royal mind was ever occupied with
the welfare of his yachts and their possible improve-
ments. And here let us redeem our promise made
a few pages back in reference to the Bezan. For some
reason or other this little ship seems to have taken a
back place in Charles' interest before long. Either
he TOt tired of her as he did of some of his lady friends,
or his newer craft showed themselves so much superior
to the Dutch yacht that she became outclassed. At
any rate, the only person who seems to have used her
was Pepys, to whom she was to all intents and purposes
his own private property.
This gay bon viveur, as devoted an apostle of
hedonism as his royal master, found the Bezan a
delightfril means of recreation. He was able to get
away from the cares and worries of the Admiralty,
which in those days of political corruption, bribery, and
dockyard theft were innumerable and incessant, and
could forget his troubles as the wind imd tide carried
him pleasantly down the Thames. For in those days
the London river was indeed enjoyable. The Thames
mud was there as it shows up to-day, but there was
comparatively little traffic, and of course it was many
a long day before the eternal stream of steam liners,
tramps, and every kind of mechanically propelled craft
took away the peace and pleasure of sallmg on the
lower reaches.
As we can see from contemporary sketches, the
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INTO ENGLAND 149
banks of the Thames were indeed beautiful, and the
sun shed its rays not on the unsympathetic lines of
chinmeys, dilapidated wharves, cement works, gaso-
meters, or other offences to the eye, but the wind
blew true across the ffreen grass and bellowed the
Holland duck of the sails with which these bluff-bowed
State craft were rigged. It came laden with no foul
gases from factory or refuse-heap ; there was no cease-
less churning of the river by thrashing propellers, and
the certainty of a collision looming up at every bend
of the riven On the contrary, it was scarcely less a
pleasure than the Solent to-day is to the saihng-man
who is worn out with the rush and work of the big
city. Thus we must think of Pepys comfortably
placed on board the Bezan^ with the sun pouring
down on the yacht, well-victualled as she certainly
was ere Mr. Pepys ever put to sea. He was very
fond of sailing down to the Nore, there to admire the
crack man-of-war of that time, for it was a pleasant
way of combining business with recreation, and of
giving Mrs. Pepys an opportunity of showing her
sjonpathy in her nusband's interests.
'* AtLgiLst 12, 1665. — I down to Greenwich and
sent away the Bezan^ thinking to go with my wife
to-night, to come back again to-morrow night to the
Soveraigne at the buoy off the Nore."
The Soveraigne^ of course, was the famous battleship
Sovereign of tJie Seas^ a great creature of 1652 tons,
which was not merely the pride of England, but the
admiration and envy of both France and Holland. She
was the first three-decker which the English navy
ever possessed, but was afterwards cut down a deck.
Originally she had four masts, but one was afterwards
taken out of her. With her beak and figurehead, her
ffreat spars, and her 100 guns, she made a fine objective
lor Pepys' aquatic excursions as she lay to her buoy
or swinging to her anchor near the mouth of the
Medway. She had been built as fetr back as the year
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150 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
1687» and though now nearly thirty years old, she was
still a source of keen interest, her alterations, which we
noted above, having taken place in 1652. She had
been designed by Jrhineas Pett and built under the
supervision of Peter Pett, but was practically rebuilt
in 1684.
And so with a suitable yacht in which to run down
the Nore on nice siunmer days, with plenty to eat
and drink, and plenty of good fellowship, with the
authority of his oflSce to ensure every attrition, the
Bezan was a very considerable convenience to Mr.
Pepys.
" We down to, the water," he writes on August 17,
1665, ** and by boat to Greenwich to the Bezan yacht,
where Sir W. Batten, Sir J. Minnes, my Lord Bruncker,
and myself, with some servants (among others Mr.
Carcasse, my Lord's clerk, a very civil gentleman),
embarked in the yacht, and down we went most
pleasantly. . . • Short of Gravesend it grew calm, and
so we come to an anchor, imd the supper mighty merry ;
and after it, being moonshine, we out of the cabin to
laugh and talk, and then, as we grew sleepy, went in,
and upon velvet cushions of the King's that belong to
the yacht fell to sleep, which we aU did pretty well
till 8 or 4 of the clock, having risen in the night to
look for a new comet. . . ."
" 18/A. — Up about 5 o'clock and dressed our-
selves, and to sayle again down to the Smercdgne at
the buoy of the Nore, a noble ship, now riggra and
fitted and manned . . . thence to Sheemess. . . .
Thence with great pleasure up the Meadeway, our
yacht contending with Commissioner Pett's, wherein
he met us from Chatham, and he had the best of it.
Here I come by, but had not tide enough to stop at
Quinborough.'*
And again, exactly a month later, he was out for
another little cruise. "I walked to Woolwich," he
writes, "... and by the time I was ready they come
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INTO ENGLAND 151
down in the Bezan yax^ht, and so I aboard and my boy
Tom, and there very merrily we sailed to below Graves-
end, and there came to anchor for all night, and supped
and talked, and with much pleasure at last settled
ourselves to sleep, having very good lodging upon
cushions in the cabin/* The next day they continued
their cruise, and called on the Prince Royals which had
been built by Phineas Pett in the year 1610. She was,
when first commissioned, the largest and finest man-of-
war in the world, though there was an unfortunate
contretemps at the time of her launching. So it was
but natural that the Secretary of the Admiralty should
take his boy down the river to admire one of the three
finest ships in the English navy. Arrived near this
big vessel, the Bezan let go anchor some distance astern
of her, and a ship's boat was sent out from the Prince
Royal to tow the Bezan against wind and tide, which
were so strong that had not the Prince thrown them a
line to the Bezan the yacht would have been compelled
to wait where she was. Remembering the strength of
the Medway tide coming in and out by the Nore, we
cannot wonder that the Dutch craft with her bluff lines
was unable to turn to windward against it. Mr. Pepys,
beinff now brought alongside, went aboard, and passed
the hours pleasantly in professional conversation until
the time came to get under way again.
"So to our yacht again," he continues. . . . "No
sooner come into the yacht, though oveijoyed with the
good work we have done to-day, but I was overcome
with sea sickness so that I begun to spue soundly, and
so cimtinued a good while, till at last I went into the
cabbin, and, shutting my eyes, my troubles did cease
that I fell asleep, which continued till we come into
Chatham river, where the water was smooth, and then
I rose and was very well."
Doubtless the tide had changed whilst he had been
paying his call on the warship, so that when he returned
to the Bezan she was a little lively with wind against
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152 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
tide. This, together with the excellent hospitality
which would be dispensed while on board the Prince
RoyaU caused even a Secretary of the Admiralty to
have unpleasant qualms. But that did not kill his
enthusiasm, for a few dajrs later, on the last day of
September, we find him off again in the same craft
to spend another week-end. "... And we three imd
two companions of his in the evening by agreement
took ship in the Bezan^ and the tide carried us no
further thim Woolwich about 8 at night." So
Pepys goes ashore to sleep, and early the next morn-
ing comes aboard again. " October 1st (Lord's Day). —
Called up about 4 of the clock, and so dressed myself
and so on board the Bezan^ and there finding all my
company asleep I would not wake them, but it begin-
ning to be break of day I did stay upon the decke
wa&ing, and then into the Maister's cabbin, and there
laid and slept a little."
Presently they get under way and sail down to
have a look at the fleet as usual, and then sail iip the
Medway. ^^ So after supper Captain Cocke and I imd
Temple on board the Bezan ... we having sailed all
night (and I do wonder how they in the dark could
find the way), we got by morning to Gillinffbam, and
thence all walked to Chatham," after which uiey " took
horses to Gravesend," and so back to town. This, then,
seems to have been Pepys* favourite cruise, down the
Thames and up the Malway, and then home by land,
the crew apparently sailing the yacht back to her buoy
during the course of the week. And there are still other
extracts that we could quote to show Pepys' love of
the new sport and the manner in which yachting was
indulged in during this reign. Three more instances
belong to the same year, imd one sees that Pepys was
so keenly attached to sailing that he kept up his week-
ends until five weeks before Christmas. Thus : —
** October 25, 1665. — ^After dinner my Lord by a
ketch down to Erith, where the Bezan was."
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INTO ENGLAND 158
^* November 8, 1665. — Was called up about four
o'clock, and in the darke by lanthorne, took boat and
to the ketch and set sayle, sleeping a little in the
Cabbm till day."
** November 17, 1665. — And so away to my Bezan
againe « . . and sayled all night, and came to Erith
before break of day."
Thus from this time onwards yachts of various sizes
continued to be built in the English yards at Deptford
and Chatham, Portsmouth, Rotherhithe, and so on,
the tendency being to turn out craft of larger tonnage.
There were various minds at work on the problem of
designing a faster type of crafL We have already seen
Charles mtroducing to Pett a new tjrpe of vessel ; we
have seen the king fanning the rivalry between the two
brothers in order that the best possible yacht should be
evolved to beat the Mary ; we have seen that Charles
even went so far as to help to design, or at any rate to
give the bare outline for a new and improved type. He
also insisted that what was commonly supposed to be
a new device (of which we spoke earlier in tnis chapter)
should be applied to the Henrietta^ by having her
under-water body sheathed with lead, the precursor
of the later development of giving yachts copper
sheathing, but owin^ to the corrosion which set up,
this lead system, which was also tried on some of the
ships of war, was abandoned.
In truth, this was not a new idea but a revival of a
very old nautical custom, as I have already explained
in the pages of another volume. And in the year 1662
— ^the year before the king was busy with his device
for the Henrietta — Sir William Petty had designed
and launched a wonderful craft which much interested
Charles, insomuch that the latter was present to see
her enter the water for the first time, and named her
the EooperimerU. This vessel consisted of two bottoms
or keels, as she was described. She was practically a
catamaran, and it is probable that Sir William had
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154 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
received the idea from some one who had travelled
abroad. It was five days before Christmas when the
launch took place, and Pepys also was [>resent. She
was practically a freak, and has no historical value in
regard to the evolution of the yacht, but it is illus-
trative of the enthusiasm which had been aroused
within a year or two owing to the gift from the
Dutch East India Company.
Certainly the Eoopenvient was not slow. A match
was arranged for a wager of £50 to race from Dublin
to Holyhead next year between her and the " packett-
boat," and the Eocperiment won easily. Add to this
the fact that there was a gale blowing at the time,
and it is proof of the seaworthy qualities which this
craft must have possessed. She had a burthen of
thirty tons, carried thirty men, had good accommo-
dation, and ten guns. This is an interesting contest,
as having been the first ocean race on record. Even-
tually the Eooperimeitt foundered with all hands in the
Bay of Biscay. But her desi^er, who was one of the
most intellectual men of his time and one of the
founders of the Royal Society, spent a good deal of
time and work on this double-bottom idea, and devised
a number of other craft so arranged.
It is now time to speak of the second yacht Mary^
which belongs to this reign, which has been, so to
speak, brought to life again in our frontispiece. The
first Mary^ it will be remembered, foundered, and it is
clear that the second Mary was built on very similar
lines, but somewhat larger. In his interesting History
of Yachtings to which 1 am indebted for certain facts
and suggestions. Captain A. H. Clark asserts that '' it is
rather strange that there should be only one portrait of
English yachts at this period," and he proceeds to refer
to a painting in a private collection.
But this is an error. It certainly would be strange
when we recollect that the Van der Veldes, both father
and son, came over to England specially to depict sea-
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Fig. 33.
The English Yacht, the Second "Mary"
p. 166
From a contemporary sketch by Van dcr Vclde. Notice the absence of leeboards.
Sheerness is seen to the right of the picture.
Fig. 34-
Some of Charles ITs Yachts
p. 166
Reading from left to right these are the " Katherine," " Charlotte," " Portsmouth," " NavJ,^'
'* Greyhound," and " Anne." (From a contemporary sketch by Van dcr Velde.)
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INTO ENGLAND 155
Pictures, and were established at Greenwich by Charles I !•
'here are still preserved some delightful pictures in
Eencil and Indian ink of all sorts of marine subjects
y Van der Velde, depicting the shipping of the time.
Our present study is concerned only with the fore-and-
afters which appear in these drawings, and in order to
rivet the attention of the reader, and to prove that
contemporary illustrations of the Mary and other
yachts that we have mentioned do exist, the two
accompanying pictures by Van der Velde (Figs. 88
and 84) are here reproduced. It is not possible to
assert the exact year when these two painters arrived
in England. It was not earlier than 1678, and was
probably 1675. The son's work is so similar to his
father's that art critics admit that it is practically
impossible to distinguish the one from tne other.
But those which are here reproduced are thought to
be by the son.
In Holland the Dutch States had provided him
with a yacht specially to draw marine subjects and
sea-fights, and there is still extant a drawing of the
Battle of Solebay, in the composition of which he has
actually depicted not only the warships, but his yacht
as well in the foreground. Now, in the first of the
drawings which the reader will find interest in per-
using there will be noticed on the extreme left the
Engush yacht Mary the second. Her dimensions were :
length, 66^ ft. ; beam, 21^ ft. ; depth, 8f ft ;
draught, 7^ ft. Her tonnage worked out at 166,
so that she was exactly sixty-six tons larger than her
prototype. She carried twenty men and six guns.
This yacht was built in the year 1677 at Chatham by
Phineas Pett, and this Van der Velde sketch was
drawn in November of that year, so that we see the
yacht probably at her best. The incident here depicted
IS the starting of the Prince and Princess of Orange on
November 20, 1677, bound for Holland.
It will be recollected that their marriage had taken
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156 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
place on November 4. The royal pair are on board
the Mary^ which is just sailing away» and the fort at
Sheemess is firing a royal salute, which the Mary is
answering. The similarity between this yacht and that
in the Verschuier sketch (and so between the first and
the second Mary) will be immediately remarked. But
this Mary 11.^ instead of the spritsail has a gaff main-
saily and no boom. The jib works on the foretopmast-
stay as the foresail works on the forestay, so that both
sails can be easily lowered and stowed. There is a Jack
flying at the outer end of the bovrsprit and an ensign
at the stem, as well as a royal standard at the mast-
head. It is clear from the other shipping, which is seen
in the background of this picture, that there certainly
were by this date fore-and-aft craft in English waters
that were not yachts.
The reader will observe that they resemble Dutch
tjalks, and if they are not foreign vessels, then they are
English trading craft based on Dutch models. One
has a boom, a second has a gaff but no boom, and so
also the third. It is extremely interesting to notice
this point, for it shows that the fore-and-aft rig was
more frequently seen in our waters than is generally
suspected. There is no question that Van der Velde
was drawing an imaginary picture, for he has recorded
the fact that he did this picture on the morning of the
date here given, and those other fore-and-afters must
have been there as shown.
The other illustrations in Fig. 84 is the second half
of this Vim der Velde original. The picture has been
reproduced in two sections so as to preserve the details
as much as possible. In addition to the Mary^ the
reader will find, reading from left to right, some of the
otheryachts that we have been talking of. These are
the Katherine^ the Charlotte (nearly out of sight), the
Portsmouth^ the Navy (nearly out of sight), the Grey-
hounds and the AnnCj the two last-mentioned just
showing their bows and figureheads. It is possible.
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INTO ENGLAND 157
while looking at these drawings, and bearing in mind
the sea-pictures which Pepys and Evelyn have drawn
for us by their pens, to gain an impression not very
different from that which would have oeen received had
we been present to see these craft in the latter half of
the seventeenth century. And these drawings form
some of the most valuable evidence which exists in
respect of our subject.
There is another drawing by the same artist made
the previous day which we do not reproduce. It shows
an earlier stage of this royal voyage on November 19.
In that delightfully sunny picture we see the Marv
getting under way from Erith. There are other craft
m the picture as well, including the yacht Portsmouth^
which m size, in rig, in general appearance, with her
three poop-lanterns, is very similar to the Mary. The
men on the latter are seen getting up anchor. There
is some bunting at the jack-staff at the end of the bow-
sprit. The jib is already set, so is the square-topsail,
which is provided with leather chafing-pieces and the
usual barren yard below. The staysail has been hoisted,
but is stowed to the stay according to the Dutch cus-
tom. The gaflF— boomless — mainsail is up, of course,
and the brail-line is bein^ slacked off so as to allow the
full spread of canvas. The yacht carries two anchors,
one on either side, and has also a cathead on either
bow. One anchor is up, the other is being broken out,
and it is a flat calm as one not infrequently has it in
the month of November. The Mary displays four of
her guns through her port-holes. Erith shore is seen
glistening in the sunlight at the back of the picture,
and the yachts Anfie and Katherine are both again
shown.
Thanks, then, to Charles II., to his previous exile in
the Low Countries, to the historic present from the
Dutch, to the excitement and interest which the first
Mary aroused alike amon^ shipbuilders and gossips,
and thanks also to the contmued enthusiasm of Charles
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158 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
himself, yacht builduig and racing had made a sure
beginning in England. Society displayed their interest,
and, in addition to Petty, it was not long before Queen
Katherine and the Duke of Richmond had become
yacht-owners. The enthusiasm even spread to France,
and Charles permitted Sir Anthony Deane to go to
France to build a couple of yachts for Louis XV.
There is a brief mention in Pepys' Diary which shows
that yachting in these fore-and-afters was becoming
fashionable under Charles' influence. On September 8,
1668, writes the diarist : —
" Up betimes, imd for an hour at my viall before
my people rise. Then up to the office a while, and
then to Sir W. Batten, who is going this day for
pleasure down to the Downes. I eat a breakfast with
them, and at my Lady's desire with them by coach to
Greenwich, where I went aboard with them on the
Charlotte yacht. The wind very fresh, and I believe
they will be all sicke enough, besides that she is mighty
troublesome on the water. . . . I left them under sayle,
and I to Deptford."
Pepys' prognostications came true, for on Septem-
ber 5 he adds : —
" I hear this day that Sir W. Batten was fain to
put ashore at Queenborough with my Lady, who has
been so sick she swears never to go to sea again. But
it happens well that Holmes is come home into the
Downes, where he will meet my Lady, and it may do
her more good than she looked for."
Thus to the existing list the name of Sir W. Batten
must be added as a seventeenth-century yachtsman.
But there was much to interfere with the progress of
this sport during this reim. Most of all, there were the
Anglo-Dutch wars, which made it impossible to cruise
round to the Downs and across to France. For when
the Dutch were frequently hovering about the North
Foreland, the mouth of the Thames, and even — scandal-
ous to remember — were allowed to sail up the Medway
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INTO ENGLAND 159
and bum our warships, it was more than enough to
stifle the sport for a good time. But the yachts them-
selves were none the less used even if the sport was
suspended. Just as the Dutch had been wont to use
vacnts in naval warfare, so the English navy did not
hesitate so to employ them. And, additional to the
Dutch warfare, we must not forget that first the Plague
of London and secondly the Great Fire had a terribly
depressing influence on even the pleasure-seeking people
of Charles' reign.
Thus there followed a depression in the sport which
had begun so well, in the development of the rig which
had been introduced with such appreciation, in the
building of a new type of hull which had immediately
been improved upon by the Petts and others. Domestic
peace is essential for the enjoyment of sports as well as
the arts and sciences, and a new sport can suffer violent
shocks with less abiUty than one which has existed for
a century or more. However, it is evident that the
yachting idea did not die utterly during the time of
trouble and national anxiety when the war was draining
the financial resources of the country in the most serious
manner. For, at any rate, not more than thirty-five
years after Charles' death there were enough yachts in
existence to found the first yachting club which our
nation possessed. And this, if you please, was not on
the Thames, nor on the south coast. It was in a
quarter where it would have been least expected.
Not England nor Scotland, but Ireland had been
buildini^ and sailing these craft, and in the year 1720
the existing yachts and yachtsmen were the cause of
the inau^ration of the Cork Water Club, which to-day
still continues under the title of the Royal Cork Yacht
Club. And as to the effect which this had on the
yachts of the time, as to the relation which Cork bears
to Amsterdam, and the rig of its yachts to the fore-
and-afters of Holland, we shall inquire in the following
chapter.
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160 THE INTRODUCTION OF YACHTS
But let this be remembered, that there was no such
sport as what is known to-day as Corinthian yachting.
It was as formal as a minuet, as ceremonious as the
prevailing insincerities of the life and epistles during
that time. It was an age when pompousness was
respected, and a similar spirit manifested itself, as we
shwl see, in the style of yachting then in vogue. To-
day there is a democratic spirit not merely on land
but afloat. Yachts put to sea when they like and
separately, whereas in the early eighteenth century
they cruised in fleets and were under discipline all the
time. The love of the sea and of ships must neces-
sarily have been present, otherwise the Irish noblemen
and gentlemen would have preferred some other form
of sport in which to interest themselves. But there
were other considerations as welL
The yacht or sailing club of those days was some-
what different from such institutions to-day. Formerly
there was a kind of semi-naval dignity and distinction
attached thereto, there was all the saluting to which
an admiral is entitled, there was the display of tactics,
and so on. Finally, after an interesting day had been
spent in signalling and manoeuvrii^, the fleet returned
to harbour, the crew stowed the sails, and the gallant
owners went ashore to enjoy a hearty dinner and their
bottles of port. Yachting was thus rather a series of
exercises than of races ; rather an occasional event of
social importance than a voyage of discovery round the
coast, entering harbours never visited before, or stealing
into those snug creeks which the yachtsman of to-day
loves to choose as his quiet anchorage for the night.
Moreover, the style of the yachts was modified in such
a way as to show their close relationship to the great
ships of the English navy, and, further back still, to the
vessels which had come from Holland. The influence
of the first Mary was indeed restrained, yet it was not
altogether obliterated in the designs of the eighteenth-
century pleasure fore-and-afters.
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CHAPTER VI
THE INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON THE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
NOW that we have seen the development of the
fore-and-aft rig in Holland, as weU as the intro-
duction of the first fore-and-afters, or at any rate of the
first fore-and-aft yachts into England, we are in a
position to follow the development of this new rig, and
to observe how from the time when Holland had
reached her nand climax the history of the rig passes
away from the Low Countries.
We have seen that it is certain that until the advent
of the Mary there was no such thing as a yacht in
English life. Whether there were, prior to tiiis, any
fore-and-afters for trading or fishing purposes is e^L-
tremely doubtful and impossible to say definitely. If
they existed at all they were only in isolated instances,
and were not the rule but the exception. I am confident
that the herring? fishermen did not employ the fore-ahd-
aft rig, but, following the example of their Dutch
rivals, put to see in buss-ships. Now, from an interest-
ing little book, whose folios are not numbered, and
published in London in the year 1615, we are able to
gain a pretty exact idea of these craft, the counterpart
of those other vessels which put forth from the Dutch
ports to catch the herrings of the North Sea. They
were rigged in a similar manner to the Dutch herring-
drifters with three masts and one square-sail on each —
from which riff there was to evolve the three-masted
lugger which is so familiar a feature in many of the
161
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162 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
old illustrations of the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries.
Therefore, as the immediate forerunner of the Deal
lugger, the old Yarmouth " yawl," the French chasse-
mar^, and the armed lufi^ger — each of these having
originally three masts with lugsail on each — we may see
briefly the character of the English buss-ship which was
to five to English craft that development of the fore-
and-aft rig that is of all examples one most akin to the
original square-saiL Although in England the lugsail
is being replaced by the ketch, yet in Scotland and
France the rig seems to hold its own among the fisher-
men, but in some ports the lug is vanishing. At one
time it was a favourite rig for the smugglers which the
Revenue-cutters of our Government went forth to
chase, but the lueger is wonderfully fast on a wind,
as any one who has ever matched an average cutter
against one must know. And it was because of their
speed, because they so often succeeded in showing a
clean pair of heels to the Revenue-cruisers, that ulti-
mately the British Government had to follow their
example and to build armed luggers to cope with
them ; but, like the old Yarmouth yawls, besides the
lug on each of the three masts they carried a jib, and
in addition the armed lugger carried a topsail on her
fore and main.
But to come back to the seventeenth-century English
busses : these were of about seventy tons burthen and
measured fifty feet on the keel, with seventeen feet
beam, and had hold enough to carry thirty-five lasts
of fish. These vessels, according to the contemporary
record, had cabins, "cooks' roomes," and other "roomes."
The cost of building such a buss as this, together with
the "ruther" (rudder), the ironwork, the bolts, the
" chane-bolts " for the rigging, the " shroud-chaines,"
"nailes," &c., as well as her cock-boat and "oares,"
amounted to the sum of £260 as a maximum. Her
mainsail and bonnet, which was }aced along the foot
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 168
after the manner of some of the North Sea fishermen
and the Norfolk wherries to-day, measured eleven yards
deep and was ^* sixteen cloaths" broad, the material
being known as " Ipswich Poledauis." Over this main-
sail she also set a topsail. Her foresail was likewise a
square-sail, and with its two bonnets measured ten
yards deep and twelve cloths broad. Also she had a
'* mizen or backsaile," which was four cloths broad and
five yards deep. In addition the buss was furnished
with all the necessary articles for sailing and fishing,
boatswain's stores, and nets and barrels, &c. She was
also to have ** two flagges or fannes [whence the word
** vanes "] to obserue the winde by," and these ** fannes "
were also to be mounted on their ** staues " or staves.
The total estimated cost of a new buss, together with
her new nets, her gear, the first year's charges for salt,
casks, as well as victuals and wages for the crew,
amounted to £984 5s. 8d.
But, having seen something of the character of the
English busses and the manner in which they were
destined to affect the later development of the fishing
craft of our coasts, until to-day uiey are at their very
best in the Scotch and Cornish luffgers, we may now
turn trom this species to consider the further evolution
of the sloop and cutter rig. The influence of Holland
was to be exercised in respect of the yacht, the Revenue-
cutter, the sailing-barge, the trader, the packet-boat,
and the fisherman as well. The period which we have
in view for the present is the eighteenth century and
the beginning of the nineteenth.
Let us commence by showing that the English naval
architecture was content for many a year to follow
alon^ the lines which Holland had laid down. It was
a duU age this eighteenth century, as barren in art as it
was in architecture. . Depressing and uninventive, with-
out sparkle of originality, it needed the great national
revival during the middle of its epoch to stir men's
minds to enthusiasm, and to bring about all those
y^
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164 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
beneficial changes which we in this country have been
enjojrinff for so many years past The marvellous
awakenmg of industrial development^ of improved
methods of transport, the discovery of the latent
powers of steam which was to lead to the invention
of the locomotive and the steamship, and so to re-
volutionise the world by hurrying forward civilisation
and development — all this did not come till late in the
day, and after a period of mere copying had been
followed. And when the time for the new order of
things did arrive it was to change altogether the
character and appearance of the sailing fore-and-after :
it was to transform a more or less barrel-shaped object
into a delicately fashioned wedge that would cleave and
leave the water as undisturbed as possible. Instead of
driving a hull through the water by the mere force of
the wind pressing on to unduly bellying canvas, the
fore-and-after was to slip through the water with the
minimum of efifbrt. The resistance was to be diminished
as much as practicable, the sails were not to be wind-
bags but more like flexible boards. The ship herself
was not to seek battle with every single wave, but, so
to speak, coax her own way through the water with
the kast fuss.
But before we arrive at the time when this was
brought about, we have first to see what conditions
had to be contended with. First of all, consider the
actual rig of such a Dutch craft as the ** hoeker." In
the accompan3ang illustration (Fig. 85), which has been
taken from Chapman's Architectura Navatis Merca-
toriay published in 1768, or less than a century after the
death of Charles II., we have the hoeker in her most
refined aspect, for this is a hoeker-yacht. She is to
all intents and purposes a development of the galleot,
and, as she now appears, is virtually a ketch. In her
original form, the hoeker, •* houcre," or " hoek-boot,"
was square-rigged, with one course on the main and
another on the mizzen. Afterwards there was added a
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 165
bowsprit, with staysail and jib, and there were also
given to her a fore-and-aft mizzen and a fore-and-aft
mainsail. The lower course, the square-topsail, and
topgallant were retained, nevertheless, on the main-
mast, and thus there was an admixture of both the
FlQ. 85.— BlQHTBENTH CBNTUBT DUTOH HOBKBB-TAOHT.
Taken from Chapman's ArckUeetura Navalit. This shows the later development
of the old ^dleot. It will be noticed that she carries three square-sails on
her mainmast.
original square-sail and the more recent fore-and-aft
rig.
It will be observed from the accompanying diagram
that there are braces to the lower and topsail yards,
and that in order to make the sail set better when on
a wind the old idea of a bowline was still employed.
This will be seen with its three-part spreader attached
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166 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
to the leach of the topsail, and the line leads awa;^ down
to the bowsprit The high-steeved bowsprit is seen
still to be retained. The mainsail has both gsff and
boom. It has one row of reef-points near the foot,
whilst the upper half of the sail can be brailed in. The
boom has its mainsheet, and there is a vang with its
purchase shown. The mizzen is also a gaffsail. The
brailinff arrangement is not here used, and by this date
it will be seen that the topping-lift is in vogue.
From this diagram let us turn to the etching of
E. W. Cooke (Fig. 86), which shows some Dutch craft
turning to windward. We miss here the colour which
this marine artist put into his paintings, but the picture
is none the less lacking in life, and few artists of his
time had such a sympathetic interest in the shipping of
his day nor understood so well how to depict what he
saw. If any British artist ever understood Dutch craft
-it was Cooke. He was of Dutch descent, and he visited
Holland as many as fifteen times. He was constantly
producing paintings of these bluff-bowed Dutchmen,
and he has shown us, for future and present interest,
that which Van der Velde bequeathed to us from his
day. Cooke's life was covered by the dates 1811 and
1880. His father was so skilled an engraver as to be
chosen to reproduce Turner's seascapes, and the son
was also employed for a time on such work. His
output was enormous, yet it is rarely that he disap-
points us.
This illustration before us, together with the others
of Cooke, belongs to the year 1829, but during the time
between this date and the death of Charles II. there
had been but little alteration in the Dutch galleots'
hulls. True, there is far more of the fore-and-aft rig
than of the square-sail in this time, but in the ketch or
galleot seen in the foreground of the picture to the left
we have many an item to remind us of her descent.
The lower coiurse, which is set on the mainmast, may
seem of unusual shape, but it is quite correct, and
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 167
exactly as the Dutch had it at this time. Strictly
speaking, it is not a square-sail at all, for the head is of
triangular shape. Why was this? The answer is
quite simple. Look at the topsail. That has to be
goared — that is to say, its foot has to be hollowed out
— so as to clear the forestay. But in cutting the top-
sail of this shape a great deal of sail-area is wasted. It
is to make up for this deficiency, therefore, that the
lower course comes up in a triangular form.
And now compare this Dutch craft with that Eng-
lish one in Fig. 82, which is also from Cooke. Here
we have a craft which is well known to all who are
familiar with the coasters alon^ the east of England.
Cooke has happily made his sketch at low-water, so
that we can see the under-body of this ship. It is true
that she is cutter-rig^fed in this instance, but they are
more usually ketch-ngged. If you compare them hull
for hull you will find that Holland is far more manifest
in the billy-boy than England. Like the Dutchman
she still carries leeboards ; the mast is still stepped in a
tabernacle for convenience in lowering; and though
the square-topsail is retained in the sketch before us, it
has to-day gone, but the modem billy-boy still retains
the lower course for use when running before the wind.
Big-bellied, rounded as to her stem, the billy-boy of
yesterday and to-day announces to any one who has eyes
that she possessed Dutch parents.
But it was not merely the trading-coaster, but prac-
tically every other kind of fore-and-after belonging to the
eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries
that was destined to be moulded by the Dutch custom.
The yacht, the Revenue-cutter, the pilot-boat, the
fishing-smack, the herring and mackerel boats, the
barge — these were all to show their submission to the
country which had taught the world the value of the
fore-and-aft rig. If we examine the work of such
marine painters as existed during the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries we may not ^ways find a
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168 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
high level of art, but we scarcely ever come away dis-
appointed in respect of nautical information. This is
not the place to give a complete catalogue of such sea-
painters, but it is possible m>m the works of such men
as Brooking (1728-1759), Bonington (1801-1828),
Serres (1759-1825), Monamy (1670-1749), Clarkson
Stanfield (1798-1867), Constoble (1776-1887), E. W,
Cooke (1811-1880\ Turner (1775-1851), and others, to
gain an accurate idea as to the kind of vessels the fore-
and-afters of the time had become.
Among the accumulation of inartistic trifles which
are stored up in Kensington Palace are a number of
badly painted sea-peces. But we can look over these
defects and feel quite thankful that these paintings
have been preserved, for they illustrate just what we
should wish to know. The collection is so accessible
to many people that we do not feel called upon to
examine each picture in detaiL Omitting from our
purview those which are battle-pieces and strictly
concerned with the Royal Navy we see that late on
into the eighteenth century the first Mary type
appeared to be the standard for the yachts of this
country. After that, whilst preserving those high-
steeved bowsprits and the general bagginess as to the
sails, there is added a boom to the gaff-mainsail, the
sail being loose-footed.
The great loftiness of the stem also begins to
disappear, until by the end of the century Uiere is
many a pleasure-yacht with her poop no higher than
her bows. There is an effort being made to get away
from the transom stem and to approximate to the
counter stem that was to follow. Those who are
familiar with the stems of many of the Sussex beach
craft such as are seen at Brighton and Hastings, will
find a great similarity between these existing stems
and those which obtained at the end of the eighteenth
century. The evolution of the counter has l^en just
this: The transom stem was taken from the con-
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 169
temporary Dutch warships. Then the poop-deck was,
later on, made to project well over the stem. The
stem-post was now at practically right angles with the
keel. But the transition thence was only a slight one,
for the stem-post was given a much greater rake, the
after-end of the ship was made to project further
astern, the transom vanished, and thus there came
about the modem counter.
But in the late eighteenth-century craft of which
we are speaking there was a stout rail which ran round
the stem, as if the loss of the high poop were really
felt and some protection were needed. The modem
life-lines which run round many of our yachts are but
the survival of these strong rails. There were sloops,
cutters, yawls, and luggers afloat and dodging about
the water with lords and ladies to witness a naval
review. The bluff bows, the beamy proportions, the
timber colour for painting the hulls — these traditions
of the Dutch were still held on to rigidly. The sails
are usually white, but occasionally one comes across
a pleasure craft with canvas striped like a window
blind, yet this is exceptional But before we pass on
to deal more minutely with the eighteenth-century
fore-and-afters, let us give some idea of the appearance
of a Dutch yacht belonging to this epoch.
Such a yacht has, according to an old Dutch
volume printed in Amsterdam, no sprit but a gaff-
mainsail, and the latter is brailed to the mast. There
is a tackle to the tack of this sail, and there are four
vangs to the peak. There is also a yard for the
square-saiL The Dutch love of bunting is seen at the
masthead, the peak, and the ensign-staff; and no
doubt there would be another flag of some sort at the
end of the bowsprit. The foretopmast-stay is not at
the end of the bowsprit, but at a point between the
stempost and the beakhead. No jib is shown, though
it was in all probability set.
The lion and figurehead and the beak are of
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170 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
course copied from the contemporary fiill-rigged ships.
There are two backstays on either side, and there is
a big chimney shown forward of the mast coming up
from the •* cooke-roome." There is also a curious
additional backstay which appears to lead firom the
throat to the end of the poop-deck. One would have
thought that it would have chafed the sail a good deal,
although it must certainly have given an additional
support to the mast. Those sausage-shaped wooden
fena-offs which we noted on another Dutch vessel are
in the «case of this print here seen again. They are
placed as well at the bows as at the stem. She has
leeboards, a couple of^||uns are seen projecting from
rounded ports on either ^de, and she has the con-
spicuous stem lantern at the extremity of the poop-
deck.
We mentioned in the previous chrater that by the
year 1720, at any rate, there were sufficient yachts in
the south of Ireland to form the first of our yacht
clubs. Now here again the Dutch influence continued
down to the minutest details. Laying aside, for the
moment, any question of rig, the Cork yachtsmen
adopted the very ideals of those Amsterdam yachts-
men whom we considered in another chapter, not
racing but engaging in sham fights and naval man-
oeuvres under the command of an admiral. Now the
Cork club busied themselves in just the same manner.
We must remember that this was a time when naval
affairs were wonderfully prominent. It was not so
long since the Anglo-Dutch wars had at last come to
an end, and now from the year 1689 till the battle of
Trafalgar, with but slight intermissions, there were
the wearisome wars with France. Additional to this
there was ever a good deal of smuggling going on
and the corresponding activity of uie Government
craft to catch the delinquents. If, then, we bear
these facts in mind, it comes quite natural to find the
first yacht club in the second decade of the eighteenth
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 171
century based on semi-naval principles^ although it
must be understood that the precedent was Dutch
and not English. The Netherlands had been such an
ensample of everjrthing that was correct in nautical
matters that those Irish gentlemen doubtless thought
that they were following the best ideals when they
drew up the sailing instructions for their fleet of
pleasure vessels.
As to its constitution, this club had its admiral, its
chaplain, and officers, and to-day every yacht and
sailmg club, with its commodore, vice-commodore,
its rear-commodore, known as the club's officers, is
unconsciously following the example of the Dutch
yachtsmen in the seventeenth century by adopting a
kind of naval atmosphere and appellation in its organi-
sation. In his interesting article in the second of the
" Badminton " yachting volumes, Mr. R. T. Pritchett
quotes from a book published in the year 1748,
wherein it is stated that these Cork yachts "for
painting and guilding exceed the King's yacht at
Greenwich and Deptford." Mr. Pritchett also gives
the rules and sailing reg^ations which were in vogue
amonfi^ these Cork enthusiasts, and may be summarised
as foUows : The yachts did not get under way until
the admiral signalled to this effect by firing a gun and
throwing out his fla^ signals as in the Uoyal Navy.
It was the admiral who led the van, who received the
honours of the flag, and, with his vessel as leader, the
rest of the craft fell into their proper stations and
"keep their line in the same m^iner as the King's
ships." With colours flying, drums beating, tnunpets
sounding, and guns bellowinjor forth, the occasional
cruises of the Cork Water Cmb were indeed impres-
sive ceremonies. Following the contemporary prac-
tice in the service, there was a good deal of gun-
powder wasted during these cruises. Sometimes the
admiral would give the fleet a chance of playing at
Revenue-cutters, sometimes he would ako give his
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172 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
fleet the signal to chase an imaginary foe ; in which
case ** he will hoist Dutch colours under his flag and
fire a gun from each quarter." Under Rule IX., if
any of the fleet had not guns to salute the admiral
they were to give three cheers, which are to be
returned by the admiral, and one cheer is to be
returned by the captain so saluting.
The saUing orders, after the manner of the Dutch
yachtsmen, included the instructions for rende2svous,
for getting under way, for communicating with the
fleet, for coming to an anchor, for chasing, and so on.
This club flourished until the year 1765, after which
there seems occasionally to have been a dearth of
enthusiasm, although it was eventually revived, and
now exists as stated. We have already drawn atten-
tion to the marine paintings of Peter Monamy, some
of which are to be foimd in Kensington Palace and
the Dulwich Gallery. But there are still preserved in
the Royal Cork Yacht Club other paintrngs^by this
artist, which show the Cork yachts of about 1720 to
1750 under way. They are seen to be rigged with
mainsail, staysail, and jib. They set no topsails,
because the throat of the mainsail is exceptionally
high, and is hoisted nearly to the truck. The staysail
is also very big, and the ^ib likewise. The bowsprit as
usual is steeved at a considerable an^le. The mast has
its shrouds and lee-runners, and at Uie end of the bow-
sprit there is the customary Union Jack. It is possible
and even probable that some of these yachts set a water-
sail below the bowsprit. But the saUs are very baggy,
and possessed nothing like the efficiency which our
modern cut affords. Each yacht flies a large ensign
at his stem, but the admiral flies a large Union Jack
at his masthead, charged with a gold harp and crown
on a green field in the centre of the flag. Other
yachts, instead of this distinction, fly streamers or pen-
nants from the masthead. The hulls are of the Dutch-
like, bluff*-bowed tjrpe of which we have already spoken.
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 178
and the sheer of the hulls rises up from the bows
towards the stem, but the poops have been very con-
siderably lowered by this tune. The spritsail is used
no longer in these vessels, but a gaff and boom.
It must not, however, be thought that yachting on
the Thames was dead. Certainly it suffered a relapse,
but at any rate by the year 1749 there were many
small sailing pleasure craft on the London river. The
sport of saihng matches was now becoming conunoner,
and in the year mentioned a dozen of these craft
started from Greenwich to race to the Nore and back
for a silver cup presented by Prince George. In the
year 1775 there was held at Battersea a regatta for
sailing craft, and a sailing match for pleasure craft of
a size from two to five tons was held from West-
minster to Putney Bridge. It was thus that the
famous Cumberland fleet came that year into being,
whence there was eventually to evolve the present
Royal Thames Yacht Club. The yacht which in the
following year won the cup was named the Kin^s
Fisher. She was a clinker-built craft, as was uie
fashion in those days, and had a straight stem and a
long straight keel. The lofty poop of other days was
absolutely gone, and only the very slightest resem-
blance to the Dutch craft was preserved by a stem
that was raised just a little. But ample beiam and a
flat body were still ideals which remained rooted in
the minds of the designers. Those were the days, of
course, when yacht races were started not by a fljong
start and an imaginary line as to-day : the vessels rode
to their anchors with sails furled, and had to break out
their hook, hoist their canvas, and hurry ofi^ as best
they might. And the semi-naval ceremony was still
adhered to even now. For the use of the Commodore
of the famous Cumberland fleet a special code of signals
was printed, so that he might manoeuvre his fleet as if
commanding men-of-war. Indeed there were times when
yachts were actually chased into port by privateers.
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174 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
In July of 1798, for example, a yacht that was cruising
round the Isle of Wight was captiured by the Dagomar^
a French privateer. It is not known what became of
the yacht, but the y^achtsmen were taken into Dunkirk,
stripped of everythmg valuable, and then released.
By the close of the eighteenth century the great
national revival and the universal awakening of England
had reached the industry of yacht buildmg. As we
know from contemporary prints and from the con-
temporary works on naval architecture, there began
to be introduced a greater originality with better
designs, giving the yacht an increase of speed. The
illustration, which includes more than one of the
prevailing types, as well as the Atalanta^ a famous
craft in her day (Fig. 87), will afford a better idea of
the yachts at the commencement of the nineteenth
century. But in the year 1796 there was launched at
Rotherhithe a celebrated yacht of the name Afm Sarah.
It is said that she " was formed pretty much after the
old school, and is certainly a very clever thing. All
floor from end to end, shallow body, deep keel, very
full bow, straight sheer, a pretty airy stem. Her
extreme breadth is before the mast." The "straight
sheer " was certainly representative of the effort to get
away from the old Dutch model, but the retention of
the "full bow" showed how difficult it was to break
away from the conservatism of many years' standing.
But it was not till the years following 1851, when the
famous America came as such a surprise, that the final
cleavage between the old and the new ideas as to the
lines of the ideal craft was to come about. Of this
we shall speak in due place.
Many of even the smallest sailing craft on the
Thames at the beginning of the nineteenth century
still retained the spritsail of the Dutchman, the mast
being placed very far forward, the sail being brailed for
stowing as usual. The staysail formed not a lar^
triangle, and most frequently there was no bowspnt.
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••••••••••
Fig. 37.
ElGHTEKNTH CENTURY CRAFT
P. 174
This conlemporary print afTords an idea of the lines of yachts, fishing boats, sailing
boats and other craft belonging to the close of the eighteenth century. Especially to be
noticed is the famous " Atalanta."
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 175
If the reader will examine the accompanying repro-
duction (Fig. 88) of one of Cooke's etchings he will
find much to interest him, and will be enabled to get a
good idea of some of the early nineteenth-century small
fry. In the bad^ground are some of the Billingsgate
oyster boats, which are cutter-rigged with staffs D<K>m,
staysail, bowsprit, and jib. The mainsau is loose-
footed, and it will be noticed that the topping-lift
is not single, but it works through a block not merely
at the masthead, but at the end of the boom, and then
returns to the mast again. If one remembers the
uninventive period wherein this type of vessel was
evolved, one can readily understand that the designers
and shipbuilders had remained content to accept the
Dutch mfluence without much argument. We have
only to look at this next Cooke etching (Fig. 89),
showing a Dutch '* schuyt " in Blackwall Reach, to see
that the Dutch model has only been adapted just as
much as was necessary for local purposes.
But to come back to the Billingsgate picture, it is
important to notice two other characteristic tjrpes of
cnrft which at one time were features of the Thames
estuary, but now are among the obsoletes. These are
the Peter-boat and the hatch-boat respectively. The
former will be seen on the extreme left and the latter
on the extreme right of this illustration. Sometimes
both Peter-boats and hatch-boats used to race on the
Thames in the early 'twenties, and they were then rigged
as cutters. But the Peter-boat is indebted to Holland
only for her rig. Her double-ended, canoe-shaped hull
dates back to the times when the Viking-form was
the recognised hull for England, and a beautiful legend
connects her name with the consecration of St. Peter's,
Westminster, which was to be replaced later by the
Westminster Abbey. And it was almost under the
shadow of this abbey, just above the Houses of Parlia-
ment, that one might see such craft some time since.
According to old prints these craft were decked in
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176 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
at the bows and the stem much like a lifeboat, except
that the decks were flat and not convex. They were
essentially fishinff craft, and the old illustrations show
them wifii a well for their fish running athwart the
craft amidships. Strongly built, with plenty of free-
board, they were able to encounter the hollow seas
which get up in the Thames estuary when wind is
affainst tide. If there are a few semi-decayed hulls
of these craft still to be seen anywhere on the Thames,
they are really worthy of being taken ashore and pre-
served in one of our museums, for they are the only
English craft which can trace, in a direct line, an an-
cestry that reaches right back to those times when the
Vikings overran our land, but left to us a knowledge of
shipbuilding that formed the basis on which the Tudors
were to build their men-of-war. Excepting the Nor-
wegian, the Baltic, and the Dutch craft of to-day, there
are no craft in northern Europe that have had such
a career with such few modifications from the original
design.
But the hatch-boat, as seen in this picture and,
better still, in the Gravesend picture, represents an
attempt to get away from the Du,tch influence. In
a certain degree it is an improved and larger Peter-
boat, and in the early part of last century was the
typical Thames estuary nsherman's craft. In the Bil-
lingsgate picture one of the smaller t3rpe is shown,
but in the spirited iUustration seen in Fig. 40, depict-
ing Gravesend Reach, a bigger species of this craft is
seen. In the present instance the hatch-boat is double-
reefed. Although not discernible, such a craft set a
bowsprit ; and in this case it will be seen that a gaff-
mainsail has been adopted in lieu of the spritsaiL
The rudder is worked by a yoke — ^lifeboat fashion —
and the mainsheet worked on a horse. The retention
of a couple of vangs, and the lacing to keep the sail
to the mast, instead of using hoops, are survivals of the
Dutch influence.
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• • • • -
• • • ••
• • •
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 177
It was in these later developed types of the hatch-
boat that the topmast was added as seen. The boom
was not employed — at least I have never seen any
representation of that — but the mizzen still kept its
sprit. To-day, as we shall see later on, the Bawley
has kept some of the essential featm*es of this main<^
sail, although with the addition of the brailing-lines.
It was because the Thames watermen required some-
thing a little larger and capable of having the shelter
which a small cabin afforded that the hatch-boat
attained such popularity. The topmast, as shown, was
rather in the nature of an addition to the original rig
of this boat. The connection of Billingsgate with the
different t3rpes of vessels it has witnessed throughout
the centuries would make an interesting essay, and
those oyster craft that we have just examined had
their counterpart in the early seventeenth century.
Even Manwayring, who lived in Elizabeth's reign,
speaks of the ketch as ^^a small boate such as uses
to come to Belingsgate with mackrell, oisters, &c."
To-day, if the steam fish-carrier may seem to have
taken away some of the former romance from this
Juayside, at any rate the historic custom of the
)utch eel-carrying schuyts is still kept up, as any one
who has ever looKed over the side of London Bridge
is aware.
The pleasure craft and the fishing vessels, the
smuggler and the King's Revenue vessels have re- .
acted on each other in regard to development to an ^
extraordinary degree. Sometimes it has been the
one which has led, sometimes the other, according
to whether the yacht, the smuggler, the Revenue
craft, or the fisherman has at a particular period
been the most developed.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century it used
to happen that, when there were not enough suitable ^^
craft to be obtained, the yachtsman purchased some
vessel that had earned both fame and notoriety in the
M
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178 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
smuggling industry : fame for her speed in getting away
from the Kin^f's cutters, notoriety for her nefarious
occupation. So also there have been times when the
fisherman has at last grown discontented, in spite of
himself, with the bluff, old lines, the old-fashioned gear,
the badl^ cut sails, and been willing to learn from the
more scientific appliances on board the yacht. The
hulls, for instance, the sails and other details of the
Poole fishing-cutters to-day are far more akin to yachts
than to the vessels which one might associate with the
work of fishing. So also in the olden days, a cutter
might be built for the purpose of preventing contraband
traffic and end her days a yacht. And there are plenty
of so-called yachts to-day which were designed, built
for, and for years employed in fishing or pilot work.
Some of the novelties which have lone since found their
way into yachts, which were despised and ridiculed at
one time by the old fishermen who " didn't hold** with
such ideas (as, for instance, improved methods of reefing),
have been accepted by the old school, and would not
be given up without regret. And so in the most natural
manner the different types of the fore-and-aft rig have
acted and reacted the one on the other for the mutual
improvement of the rig as a whole.
If we except the Met of quite pleasure craft which
were accustomed to sail, and sometimes race, between
Blackfriars Bridge and Putney, it may be asserted that
whatever yachting was indulged in about this time
belonged to the wealthy alone. Those noblemen, for
instance, who had their places along, or not far from, the
coast, found their yachts highly useful for crossing to the
Continent, and more convenient than the packet-boat.
The Duke of Richmond, for instance, is reported to
have had a la^e yacht launched at Itchen on May 17,
1788, and on July 6 to have " set sail in his new yacht
for France " accompanied by members of his family.
And it was rather as a means of transport that down
to the banning of the nineteenth century these big
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Fig. 39.
Dutch Schuyt
p. 176
Afier the engraving by K. W. Cooke. The influence of the Dutch hull and rig over English craft
persisted in a most marked manner till nearly the middle of the nineteenth century.
Fig, 40.
Hatch-boat in Gravesend Reach
p. 176
This is after the engraving by E. W. Cooke. In the early part of the nineteenth century this
was the typical craft of the Thames Estuary fishermen.
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 179
yachts were employed, instead of being either racing
or pleasure craft. It is also on record that a new yacht
belonging to Lord Ferrers, in turning to windward from
the Downs to Blackwall, beat everything else. That
was in 1778, but the same year she was in turn beaten
by two " shallops " in a race from Dover to the French
coast and back.
We may now pass on to examine more closely the
character of the cutters and sloops that were prevalent
at this time ; and first, with regard to that exceedingly
interesting creature the Revenue cruiser. As her mis-
sion in life was to get along with the utmost despatch
so as to overtake the wily smuggler, it was of prime
importance that she should be given the fSastest hull
that the contemporary designer could give her, together
with an exceptionally large sail-area. First of all, then,
consider the noble peacefid English cutter as she was
at the time of about 1810 to 1880. Every one is familiar
with Turner's celebrated picture in the National Gallery
entitled ** Calais Pier," which shows the English packet
coming into the harbour and a French fisherman clear-
ing out. It is blowing a strong breeze from the west-
ward, with the nasty sea which is familiar to those
who have sailed along this coast, where a smart wind
against tide makes a sea sufficiently unpleasant for
moderate-sized sailing craft. The war with France had
prevented Englishmen for many years from travelling
abroad, but in the year 1802 Turner took advantage of
the Peace of Amiens and crossed to France. It was
while entering Calais harbour that he had at hand a
subject for his picture that was to be exhibited at the
next year's Academy, and was entitled as mentioned.
The English packet and the French fisherman are a
study in contrasts, and the picture shows that in this
year 1802 the former had begun to be less beamy, more
distinctive, more original, while the French vessel was
yet as tubby and big-bellied as the old-fashioned Dutch
craft; in short, the English craft is a long way the
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180 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
superior. For, ever ^inee about the middle of the
eighteenth century, our own countrymen had begun
to improve on their Dutch inheritance, and in no
respect more than in the development of the cutter.
It is to the English that this development was
especially due.
In a French nautical work published in Paris in the
year 1788, the cutter is referred to as a craft whose con-
struction comes to the French from the English. After
remarking that in respect of its rigffing and its sail-plan
the cutter resembles a sloop or " bateau d'Am^rique,"
except that the cutter usually has her mast inclined
more aft and has also a longer mast and greater sail-
area, this authority goes on to say that the cutter also
sets a kind of bonnet which is bent to the foot of the
mainsail, and adds that the cutter differs from the sloop
in that she has little freeboard, but that she draws more
water so as to carry sail the better.
"The cutters," continues this explanation, "have
many uses, especially being employed by the smugglers
of the English Channel, for the reason that these craft
being very fine sailers, and being able to carry a good
deal of sail, they can easily escape from the guardships.
The English Government for the same reason maintain
a good many of these craft so as to stop these smug-
glers ; they are manned by a crew of thirty, and carry
from six to eight cannon as well as some swivel-guns.
Recently some have been constructed for the Depart-
ment of Brest."
Thus we see that it was England that originated this
special type of vessel Falconer in his authoritative
dictionary defines the cutter as " a small vessel com-
monly navigated in the Channel of England, furnished
with one mast and a straight-running bowsprit that can be
run in on the deck occasionally ; except which, and the
largeness of the sails, they are rigged much like sloops.
Many of these vessels are used on an illicit trade, and
others employed by the Government to seize them, the
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 181
latter of which are either under the direction of the
Admiralty or Custom-house."
In the illustration (Fig. 41) will be seen a sketch of
a Revenue-cutter belonging to about 1810 to 1880.
This is from a model in the South Kensington Museum.
She carries twelve guns — six a side plus two swivel-guns
— ^viz. two at the bow and two at the stem. Her ton-
nage would work at about 180, her length 85 ft., beam
24 ft, depth 18*8 ft., and draught 11 ft As to
her rigging, notice that the sauare-sail yard has been
lowered nearly to the deck. Her bowsprit, as was then
the fashion, is very long, and she has five good shrouds
a side, with rope-ladders for going aloft to set the
square-sail. Above the lower course she would set a
much-goared topsail, and a square topsail over that.
The square ports are taken from the fashion in the
contemporary •* wooden walls." The mast and gaff
are very long, and the topmast seems excessive ; but
these vessels were made to carry sail and to be hard
driven. Notice also that the yard is guyed forward
to the end of the bowsprit. The topping-lift was
double in the manner we explained a ^w paragraphs
back. The hull was varnished timber-colour, with a
black rubbing-strake running around. As to whether
the Revenue-cutter broke the rule existing among
ships by having her topmast ahaft instead of forward
of the mast is a point of dispute. In this model the
topmast is shown forward, but Leslie, in his Old Sea
Jrings, states definitely that it was stepped abaft.
Now, the Revenue-cutter, the English packets, and
the despatch-boats of Nelson's timp were very similar
to this model in general resects. They were clinker-
built up to the deck, and their stem projected aft for a
little way in the nature of a platform, as will be seen,
and thus was the forerunner, as we explained above,
of the modem counter stem. There were catheads
on either bow, and the ship rode to hempen cables.
The lines are certainly most pleasing. The bow was
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Fig. 41.— English Rsvbnus-Outteb.
From a model in the South Kensington Museum. Her tonnage was 130, and she
belongs to the period of about 1810-1830. She was employed against
smugglers and was a very fine sailer, being manned by a crew of thirty.
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 188
a great improvement on the old bluff Dutch desimi,
and the stem is very fine. It is especially noticeable
that aft is the greatest draught of water, and Leslie
points out that this has always been retained as a
feature in our English cutters.
From tiiis let us turn to look at another equally
interesting model (Fig. 42) which was sketched in the
Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. This shows a Dutch
Revenue-cutter — oorlogskotter is the Dutch word —
De VTieg (** The Fly "), on account, no doubt, of her
g-eiat speed. Here, in the matter of influence, is
ngland returning thatiks to Holland; for, as may
immediately be seen, the Dutch have copied the
English craft in almost every possible respect. There
is the very closest similarity in respect of nulls, though
this Dutchman carries eight guns a side, and the
sockets in the stem are there all ready for the swivel-
guns to be placed. The lines are so nearly identical
with the English cutter that we need not discuss
them further.
But the sail-plan is deserving of every consideration.
Notice the bowlines on both topsail and topgallant which
lead forward to the end of the bowsprit; also the
Dutch way in which the head of the ^ib ends in a
tiny yard. The lower course is shaped m the curious
manner that we have already demonstrated, and its
yard is of course necessarily short. Above this she
sets a much-goared topsail, which is thus made to clear
the forestay and both jib and fore halyards, and above
the topsail she carries also a topgallant. But as if this
canvas were not enough, she carries stimsails, the lower
booms being run out along the lower yard, while, above,
quite short yards and blocks suffice. In addition even
to these the mainsail also sets a ring-tail abaft the
leach of the mainsail. Of course the square-sails, the
stunsails, and the ring-tail were all copied from the
prevailing fuU-rigged ships. But with all this cloud
of canvas and a smart breeze, the smuggler must have
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 185
been a mighty smart craft to be able to dude this
Government cruiser. As she came foaming along,
with all this immense sail-area aloft, she would have
presented a magnificent sight for any one possessed of
imagination and emotion. Her lines are such that she
woiud undoubtedly be fast; her rigging and runners
and backstays are all very strong, and of necessity so.
Skilfully handled, with a sufficient and ample crew,
the Fly under way must have shown herself capable
of doing some wonderful passages and chases. She
has set canvas in almost every inch of space, and
additional to what is here seen there would be a jib
topsail as welL Below the small yard to which the
lower course is bent there is another yard. This was
known on full-rigged ships as the barren-yard, and was
used on the cutters for the purpose of sheeting down
the topsail, and in the present instance for runnmg out
the stunsail booms. The two davits at the stem are
copied from the Scandinavian custom, and are used
for canying the ship's boat. On a later page we shall
deal with the famous Captain Schank*s invention of tiie
sliding keel, but here, m passing, we may add that
this invention was tried on a Revenue-cutter named
the Trial
We have already referred to Chapman's well-known
work on naval ardiitecture, which, together with Stalk-
artt's Naval ArcMtecture, formed two of the greatest
authorities on the subject of the eighteenth century.
Marmaduke Stalkartt pubUshed his book in London in
1781. It was a time when, thanks now not to the
Dutch but the scientific French, naval design and
construction were bein^ raised to a higher position
than had ever obtained before. England had good
reason to watch this improvement with great interest.
The war-cloud hung so heavily and so threateningly
that she had need to keep her sailing warships up to
the highest standard, and so all the learned theories
and investigations of the French on such subjects as
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186 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
resistance of vessels passing through the water, and so
on, were examined with great care by our countrymen,
and, where they seemed feasible, embodied in English
designs. The books printed in England about this
time on naval architecture are full of theories and
experimental ideas, which, however, we need not stop
to look into. But the nett result was that, while in
very many cases, especially amonff the obstinate and
old-fashioned, the cutters and sn>ops still remained
more like barrels than scientifically designed ships, yet,
as evidenced in the Revenue-cutters and the best
yachts, no less than in the smugglers, there had set in
since the mid-eighteenth century a decided improve-
ment both in design and build, though it was not till
the middle of the nineteenth century that the fore-
and-after really began to make rapid headway towards
the attainment of the ideal design.
Two designs have been iiere re{)roduced from
Stalkartt, as ulustratinff the highest point reached in
the year 1781 by our designers of this type of vessel
The first (Fig. 48) shows the lines of a cutter, whose
length, measured from the foreside of the stem at
the upper edge of the wales to the afterpart of the
stempost at the upper edge of the rabbet of the keel,
was 60 ft Her breadth was 25 ft. 4 in., the
length of keel (for tonnage measurement) being 44 ft.
9f in. Her burthen worked out at ld2ff tons.
With the addition of these plans to the two models
of the Revenue-cutters previously alluded to, it is
Sossible to acquire a good working idea as to the
egree of advancement in the cutter at the end of
the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth
centunes.
The second illustration (Fig. 44) from Stalkartt
shows a design for a yacht, and she is only slightly
smaller. The length from the foreside of the stem to
the afterpart of the stempost at the height of the wing
transom measures 75 ft. 5 in. The length of the
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-.^^ UC^ l^.----^
Mss
■ J '-^iX^:l^i^^-^-P^ 'JrHi:.
F«g.43-
Lines of a Cutter of the Year 1781
This shows the design by Stalkaitt, the famous eighteenth-century naval architect,
for a cutter of about 15a tons.
r • - ^
Fig. 44-
Design for a Yacht
p. 180
This also is by Sialkartt, the tonnage being about 141. Notice the influence of the
contemporary fuIUrigged ship on the bow and stern.
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 187
ked for tonnage measurement is 59 ft. 4f in.
Her extreme breadth is 21 ft. 2 in., and the
moulded breadth 20 ft. 10 in. Her burthen
worked out at 141|^ tons. Stalkartt describes her as
having been ''designed to be an expeditious sailer,
without any other stowage than is actually necessary
for accommodation ; but which is to be, at the same
time, what is termed a stiff sea boat, able to carry
sail sufficient to speed her to some place of safety,
and to keep her off from a lee-shore. These qualities
in a yacht when happily united render her a most
useful as well as agreeable appendage to the more
noble structures of naval arcnitecture." In short,
what he aimed at was, in the words which have
been recently employed to describe the modem
racing cruiser, " habitability with speed." To-day
there is a complete separation between yacht and
ship designinfi^, for the obvious reason that the two
types are enturely different and need special methods.
Nevertheless tiie yacht is neither despised nor un-
worthy. It is therefore amusing to note the disposi-
tion of the eighteenth century towards these craft
as evidenced by Stalkartt as being ^^a most useftil
as well as agreeable appendage to the more noble
structures," &c. It was analogous to the pomposity
of a period when might was nght and the mightiest
was the best in matters not necessarily connected with
sport or naval architecture.
We gave Falconer's definition just now of a cutter.
Let us now add that he speaks of the sloop as ^^a
small vessel furnished with one mast, the mainsail
of which is attached to a gaff above, to the mast on
its foremost edge, and to a boom below, by which
it is occasionally shifted to either quarter. It differs
from a cutter by having a fixed steering [sic] bowsprit
and a jib-stay, nor are the sails generally so large in
proportion to the size of the vessel." The word
" steering " is doubtless a misprint for " steeving," for
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188 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
in the sloops of this period it is characteristic that
the bowspnt was steeved at a ^reat angle, something
after the manner of the earljr I)utch yadits, which,
in turn, had copied the fashion from the older fiill-
rigged ships*
Moore, in his Midshipman's or British Mariner's
Vocabulary^ written in the year 1801, speaks of
Falconer's Marine Dictionary as the only book that
has hitherto appeared in the English language as a
guide to seamen on which any dependence can be
placed. Moore, who professes that ne has consulted
the best French marine authors of the time, defines
the cutter briefly as " a vessel furnished with one mast
and a straight running bowsprit, or which can be run
in on the deck occasionally; except which, and the
largeness of the sails, they are rigged much like
sloops." The sloop he de&ies in edmost identically
the same language as Falconer, except that he uses
the word ** steeving " instead of the misprinted " steer-
ing " in connection with the bowsprit The sloops of
war, which formed units in the Royal Navy of this
time, were sometimes rigged as cutta:^, sometimes as
schooners, and occasionidly even as ships and brigs.
They carried from 10 to 18 guns, and were commanded
^'by officers in a middle rank, between a lieutenant and
a post-captain, and stiled masters and commanders."
In the accompan}dng illustration (Fig. 45) has been
reproduced a model of a schooner-rigged sloop.
Moore, in his work from which we have quoted,
does not so much as mention the word yacht, and
this, taken in conjunction with Stalkartt's attitude,
well illustrates the insignificant place which the yacht
occupied at that time in the mind of the seaman;
for it existed in such few numbers that it was not
worth reckoning. Falconer, the first edition of whose
work was pubUshed in 1770, certainly does allude to
this type of craft, but his definition of her "as a
vessel of State, usually employed to convey princes.
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 189
ambassadors, or other great personages from one
kingdom to another" shows that this species of craft
must at that time have necessarily been few in number.
In one of the later editions of this work we are able
to gain an accurate idea as to what sort of a vessel the
yacht of about 1815 was. We find that she was rigged
with a jib, staysail, mainsail, and square topsail set on
a yard, but with a barren-yard bdow. The hull is in
many ways influenced by tiie frigate or corvette type
of warship then in service. It had both figurehead
and beak, whilst the raised poop shows how closely
connected was this vessel witii the galleons of Tudor
times. Along the hull was a line of port-holes, con-
sisting of as many as six each side. The bowsprit
was as long as the boom, and below the former she
set a square water-sail. At the end of the bowsprit
she flew the Union Jack, as was then the custom.
The influence of the old bomb-ketch is exceedingly
marked in the hull of this yacht, but it belongs
rather to the royal t3rpe of yacht in use during the
eighteenth century tiian to the improved private yachts
seen on the south coast in the second aecade of the
nineteenth.
The Z)utch sloepe, then, had as descendants firstly
the British cutters and sloops. Then, owing to the
success which the cutter had found in England, France
copied this type, and Holland too. At the same time,
in America, the sloop had also begun to thrive, and also
owing to Holland. For we are aware that the Dutch
in the seventeenth century were great colonisers, and
that the men who had been bred and born always with
some waterway in their close vicinity in that stretch of
land between the North Sea and the Zuyder Zee, after
having made their new home in America and called it
New Netherlands, would most naturally, and actually
did, take to the water as ducks which have been trans-
ported from one lafi^oon to another. As they had built
and sailed sloops a!u their lives in old Holland, so they
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190 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
b^an to do in the New Netheriands, mud thus the
Dutch exam^ and inventkHi in the matter of the
fore-and-aft ng were carried not merely to England,
and through the latter to France, but to North America
as welL And to this day the Americans speak of the
slocm when we should use the word cutter.
From a contemporary drawing in the Briti^ Museum
the measurements of a sloop belcmging to the jenr 1796
are given as : loigth on keeU 88 ft 4^ in. ; extreme
beam. Id ft. 6 in., so that thejr were remarkably beamy
craft. But as belonging to the generic rig of cutter
there were also other smaO craft with ^>ecial designaticms.
The hoy, for instance, acceding to Moore, was a small
vessel rigQg^ usually as a sloop, and employed in carry-
ing passengers and goods from one place to another,
particulariy on the sea-coast, where ordinary lightars
cannot be managed with safety or ccmvenience. The
smack, according to Falconer, was a small vessel
commonly rigged as a cutter, and used in the coasting
or fishing trade, or as a tender in the kind's service.
That, of course, refers to the smacks bdongmg to the
late eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth
century. But the original type of Dutch semaque we
have dealt with in a previous chapter.
As to what these early nineteenth-century smacks
were like we may see from the accompanying picture
(Fig. 46), which shows some Scotch smad:s. In them the
old Dutch bluff lines have been retained, and the bows
in particular are instantly noticeable. The anchors are
of course smaller, but of a similar pattern to those
which Nelson's Victory carried. Even the yard for the
square-sail is still kept, and the rope ladders for climbing
aloft. The Dutch-like weather-vane is also there.
These vessels are trading smacks. But in the next
illustration, also after Cooke (Fig. 47), we have an
excellent presentation of the sail-plan of a fishing
smack. The first point which immediately strikes one
is the amazingly bad cut of the canvas. It is to our
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 191
modem eyes slovenly and unnecessarily baggy, but this
was the custom till after the mid-nineteenth century.
The length of the boom and the bowsprit is enormous,
and the whole effect is not one to rouse enthusiasm.
The topsail, however, bad as it is, must interest us ; for
with a part of it projecting forward of the mast some-
thing uke a lugsail, and the angle which the head
makes with the topmast, we see this sail in its state
of transition. The square topsail of the fidl-rigged
ship and the Revenue-cutter is vanishing, but not yet
has come that perfect shape which we are accustomed
to use on our cutters to-day. The only instance where
nowadays there still clings tenaciously a resemblance to
the transitional topsail is in the case of the Thames
barge.
Cooke, of coiurse, knew his business far too well to
fall into any inaccuracy in regard to a vessel's rig ; but
lest the reader should imagine that in this particular
example the sails seen are of an unusually baa cut and
have not been sweated up to their full hoist, let us be
allowed to refer him to other illustrations of about this
date that depict this kind of craft. There are plenty
of instances to be noticed in the prints and paintmgs of
the time. It was just as bad on one part of the coast
as any other, and I have examined a very considerable
nimiber of contemporary illustrations of the subject.
If any reader should hapjpen to be cruising on the
south coast of England and find himself in the vicinity
of Chichester haroour he may find it interesting to run
up to Bosham, in whose churchyard, near to the gate,
he will find on a tombstone an inscription and illustra-
tion belonging to this period that are well worth
examining. At the top of the stone is carved,
somewhat crudely, but with a good deal of truth, a
sloop belonging to the middle of the eighteenth century,
or almost exacUy a hundred years after that day when the
first yacht Mary came over firom Holland. This sloop
has jib and staysail as well as mainsail, with the Jack
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192 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
flying on the jack-staff forward, and the l^;end reads
thus : —
"In Memory of
Thomas, son of Richard and Ann Barrow,
master of the ship 7\co Brothers^
who by the breaking of the horse fell into the
sea and was drowned,
October the 18th, 1759, aged 28 years."
This is the only instance I know of which shows a
fore-and-aft sculpture of that period. The " breaking of
the horse " has nothing to do with a refractory steed,
but, as the quaint illustration depicts, the bobstay has
carried awav, and the bodjr of the unfortunate mariner .
is seen tumbling headlong into the water, a conventional
shark or fish eagerly awaiting him at the stem. In the
Elizabethan times the word ** hawse " signified the bows
of the ship; hence the nautical expression ^'atiiwart
hawse." But two hundred years later, whilst the word
hawse was retained to speak of the ship's cables, yet
" horse " signified a rope, usually that which reached
from the middle of a yard to both its extremities, and
depended some two or three feet itom that yard for the
saQors to tread, while aloft setting the square-sail on a
cutter. But it was also employed to describe a thick
rope which was used for hoisting a yard or extending a
sau thereon. The yard of the square-sail, for example,
was attached to the horse by means of a traveller which
slid up and down. But in the sculpture alluded to it is
clear that the use of the word was also applied to the
bobstay, which is seen to have broken, and so in some
way caused the decease of the young master of the
Two Brothers.
We shall see presently how it came about that the
yacht was to influence the Government vessel, but
before so doinff we may run briefly through the early
period of the nmeteenth century, so that we may have
clearly in our mind the different processes through
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Fig. 46.
Scotch Trading Smacks
p. 190
After the engraving by E. W. Cooke. These craft show bow persbtentl> the old Dutch
bluff lines continued into the nineteenth century.
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 198
which the fore-and-aft yacht had to pass. The reader
is abeady in possession of a good many facts, and has in
his mind, thanks to the illustrations which have been
put before him, a working knowledge of many of the
fore-and-afters as they are descended from the time of
Charles to about the time of the battle of Trafalgar. In
order to make our meaning clear, and to be allowed to
fill in details at once, it has been necessary to digress
more than once. What we now propose to do is not so
much to go into minute details of rigging and sail, which
we have already attempted, as to give cohesion to the
progress of the cutter and sloop, and to carry on that
evolution from the days of ignorance to the time when
experiment and knowledge were to bring about a com-
plete revolution in the design and equipment of the
fore-and-after.
In order to effect any radical series of improvements
in ships it is essential that there should be sufficient
financial encouragement. The shipbuilding industry is
carried along on business lines, and must pay its wa^.
It is true that in this progressive twentieth century big
shipbuilding firms can afford to employ a part of their
staff in experimental work, and to sink part of their
capital in making models and tanks to ascertain certain
laws and theories. But matters were not so prosperous
at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The long
wars had been a serious financial loss to the country,
and there was nothing like that amount of wealth and
prosperity in our land which were to follow from in-
creased trade caused by better facilities of transportation,
such as have been brought about by the steamship and
the railway.
Therefore, the men whose work it was to build
ships either had to follow the acknowledged types which
would readily be purchased, if not by the Government,
at any rate by the fishermen, the pilot, or the smuggler.
To depart largely from the models already recognised
was a risky matter. True, the encouragement during
N
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194 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
the first two decades of the nineteenth centunr given
by the Government to build the fastest seaworthy craft
to deal with the contraband traffic was more than
helpful to the shipbuilder; but it was the wealthy
gentleman of leisure who could afford to spend lavishly
on the building of a pleasure craft that came as a great
incentive force to the shipman. At first he wMited a
craft something like himself — stately, dignified, impres-
sive. But after a while, when racing became a fashion,
and wagers were frequently made, and handsome cups
and prizes offered, his yacht was to be something better
than a miniature floating palace.
One owner this summer might bring out a yacht
that would sweep the board, and continue to be talked
about for the whole of the winter. The following year
would see other owners in the field with something
better — superior lines, increased tonnage, and a much
larger sail-area. These new craft, in their turn, would
wrest the laurels from the yacht of last year ; and so
the competition went on. Now all this was very good
for the sport ; for the development of the cutter and
sloop gave the highest encouragement to the builder,
and generally helped forwara the right kind of
enthusiasm. The yacht was to become something
more than a nonentity : she was destined actually to
influence some of the naval craft.
AVe have seen that from its earliest days yachting
in Holland was connected with the navy by the adop-
tion of naval tactics, sailing instructions, and signals.
We have seen the same custom continued in the first
yacht club in Cork ; and we have remarked that even
on the Thames the commodore of the Cumberlwid
fleet commanded his ships like a naval commander-in-
chief. So it was to be on the south coast. In the year
1812 there were so many yachts and yachtsmen that
fifty of the latter determined to establish at Cowes an
institution which was called the Yacht Club. Eight
years later the name was changed to the Royal Yacht
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 195
Club. There was, as yet, no regular regatta held.
That was to come several years later ; but these com-
fortable and slow craft used annually to give a wonder-
fully impressive demonstration or naval review after the
manner of the Dutch and the Irish. Under the com-
mand of the commodore the fleet would collect and
process round the Brambles buoys, then cruise to the
westward, down the Solent as far as Hurst Castle, wid
so back to Cowes, where thousands of awed spectators
would look on and applaud this pompous spectacle.
The yachts had to keep their station after the manner
of ships-of-the-line, and, like the other associations,
signalling was indulged in. During the year 1816 a new
code of signals had come into the navy, thanks to Sir
Home Popham, and it was that new code which this
fleet of yachts loved to practice. Every year, then, the
great event off^ Cowes was this pi^eant of yachts parad-
ing after the naval manner. Mnkat an owner wanted,
then, was not a fast ship, but one that would look im-
posing as she took her place in that annual procession.
And if we are to judge by the yachts which attended
the royal naval reviews, as depicted in contemporary
paintings, we can surmise that the owners got what
they had ordered from the shipbuilders. There was, in
addition to this, a certain amount of ocean cruising to
be done northwards to Russia and the Baltic, or south-
wards to the Mediterranean. And the late Mr. Mon-
tague Guest, in his history of the Royal Yacht Squadron,
which was to evolve from this Royal Yacht Club, related
that often an owner would take his yacht down to Lisbon
and load up with wine to replenish his English cellars.
But after a while it began to be reiuised that this
water pageant was but a limited form of sport, and
racing began. So the element of speed entered into
the recreation, and the ** impressive " type of yachts
became obsolete, and, instead, something that would
hurry through the water was wimted. Where could
they.be obtained ? Obviously the only men to go to
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196 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
were those who had been accustomed to build the fast
Revenue-cutters and smugglmg craft ; or, failing these,
some lesser men who had made successes of their pilot
and fishing craft* It happened sometimes that smuggler
craft wid Revenue-cutters were being built simul-
taneously in the same yard, side by side. If after
launching it was found that the ship which had been
intended for the contraband industry proved herself to
be the faster, then the Government was not unwilling
to pay a handsome premium and take that instead of
the other vessel.
To begin with, then, the yachtsman who wanted a
fast craft had either to purchase an ex-smuggler or
Revenue craft, or he had to have a ship built on those
lines. It is thus that in some of the racing yachts of
the early 'twenties we find the water-sail, stunsails, and
ring-tails carried just like a Revenue-cutter. The rating,
such as it was, was based on the tonnage, which in
turn was estimated from the supposed cargo capacity
that the yacht possessed. And between the yacht, the
packet-boat, the Revenue-cutter, and the pilot-boat
there was little externally to i^hoose. The accompany-
ing illustration (Fig. 48), which belongs to the year
1828, will show the nature of these craft. It is entitled
"Pier at Little Hampton," and forms one of the
beautiful pictures engraved by William Daniell and
collected in a volume entitled A Voyage Round Great
Britain. These vessels were extraordinarily strong
and heavy. Full in the bows they fined away aft, as
we saw in the two models just now. But gradually, as a
result of the competitive sport of yachting, it began to
be realised that there was no point in making these
yachts of such heavy materials. Their timbers and
glanking could be made lighter without unduly sacri-
cing strength, but at the same time giving a welcome
lightness to the vessel. They were therefore improved
in this direction.
The cutter rig was retained for the reason that it
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Fig. 47.
Fishing Smack
p. 190
Of the early nineteenth century. This shows how bad was the cut ot the sails in those
days, which are in nowise here exaggerated. (After the engraving by £. W. Cooke.)
Fig. 48.
Cutter Entering Littlehampton Harbour
p. 196
This illustration, which is after William Daniell and belongs to the year iSaq, shows the strong,
heavy, full-bowed type of cutter of that time, with square topsail and t'gallant. - ^ ^^^ ^-^ ^-^1 ^-^
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 197
was the handiest for manoeuvring in confined waters, and
especially suitable when harbours had frequently to be
entered. Furthermore, it afforded the greatest amount
of sail-area with the minimum amount of weight in
spars. And lastly, as every one knows, the cutter will
sail at least one, if not two points nearer the wind than
the square-rigger. A typical fast yacht of about the
year 1815 was cutter-rigged, copper-fastened, and some-
times copper-sheathed. Having a burthen of 60 or 70
tons, with a saloon 10^ ft by 15 ft, she had also three
smaller bed-cabins and a steward's room, as well as fore-
castle. She was ballasted with 5 tons of lead and 25 tons
of iron, the blocks being moulded to fit the hold.
It is true that as far back as the year 1780 there
had been sailing matches off Cowes, but these were
exceptional, and not regular annual affairs of import-
ance. Up to the close of the eighteenth century it was
rare to find a yacht exceeding 85 tons burthen, but
by about the year 1826 some of the Royal Yacht Club
cutters, thimks to the new influence of racing, had
reached the exceptional size of 180 tons. For a *^ single-
sticker " this is simply enormous, and it is not surprising
that these yachts whenever during their cruises they
came across any of the king's cutters beat the latter
easily. Each year the tendency of the cutter yacht was
to get longer and longer, and increased tonnage went
on till it reached the figure mentioned. One of the
most famous cutters of the big class was the Atalanta^
belonging to about the year 1815, but she was not by
any means the largest, and worked out at 116 tons.
Owners insisted on gigantic sail-areas, and thus larger
hulls had to be built to meet these requirements. As
we shall see, the evolution of the fore-and-aft yacht ever
since the sport was founded on a secure basis has been
regulated and modified by the laws laid down by the
yacht clubs and racing associations. Even as far back
as the year 1826 this force had begun to operate, for it
was enacted that the use of extra sails was forbidden.
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198 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
That being so, there was nothing for it but to
increase the size of the ordinary sails. To meet this,
not merely had the size of the hulls to be made greater,
but very drastic means had to be effected that the
vessels should be able to sustain such a spread of canvas.
Additional ballast had to be carried, and a certain
amount of heavy-weight lifting took place to shift
great blocks of metal to the windward side of the
vessel on each tack. This was, of course, a false
method of working towards the attainment of the ideal
raca ; but it was in these days legitimate, and so for a
time continued. But at this time the line of separation
between the old and new types is most marked. Thanks
to the prevailing rules for racing, the Revenue-cutter
type had ceased to be the model for the cutter yacht.
Something finer with lighter scantlings was required as
to hull, and in the matter of the rig those square courses,
Xare topsails and topgaUants, stunsails and ring-tails,
ch were regarded as extra or fancy sails, were scrapped
and omitted from future designs.
But though the square-topsail had gone, a gaff-
topsail was employed, and thus there was laid down the
general lines of the cutter rig for futurity. It was not
altogether fortunate that some of these undoubtedly
useful square-sails should have been abolished. For the
cruiser in certain winds they are most useful, and so
easily handled that it was a pity to do away with them
entirely. But for years the new convention was fol-
lowed owing to the element of racing which remained
as a potent influence, and it is onJy comparatively
recently that cruising men have begun to bring back
the sqtiare-sail into the inventory which should be
found on a yacht intended not exclusively nor especially
for winning cups.
Even in the 'twenties, after the wars had ceased,
and it was safe to cruise up and down Channel, some
of the big cutters still went about with a few four and
six-pounders on their decks, and even with a complete
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 199
annour^ below consisting of rifles, pistols, and cutlasses.
But this was not so much from the necessity of having
arms on board as resulting from that semi-naval tradi-
tion which still clung to the yacht. Besides the cutters,
both large and smaU, there were a number of yawls,
and, from about the year 1820, the schooner b^an to
increase in popularity, but she was usually a topsail
schooner, and just prior to her time the brig, with
gims and discipline resembling that of the Royal Navy,
was popular among wealthy owners. There were also,
thanks to the influence which certain fast smuggler-
craft had exercised on naval architecture, a certain
number of luggers used as yachts, as well as yawls;
but for the reasons already given the cutter remained
the most popular. Long before ever Cowes was a
great yachting resort, that town had become con-
nected with the fore-and-after by its build of Revenue-
cutters ; but after the design and rig of the yacht began
to improve, the old-fashioned clinker-build was super-
seded, and yachts were made carvel-built instead.
It was because the smugglers were so frequently
able to get away from the Government craft, and
because the big yachts were able to show the king's
cutters a dean pair of heels, that at last an outcry was
made, and the Government was ur^ed to bring about
an improvement. They were to sink their pnde and
be content to leam from the amateur pleasure yachts
which had shown themselves to possess qualities that
the king's ships did not. It was apparent to every one
that the cutter yachts had far outstripped the naval
architecture which the Government had favoured, and
the amateur had, by his sporting enthusiasm and his
purse, encouraged the science and art of cutter-building
to an extent which previously had not been attained.
Thus it came about, then, that the Government
took the matter up, set its experts to work, and even
arranged a match oetween a cutter yacht and a king's
cutter. The result was so much in favour of the yacht
y
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200 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
that the matter was settled beyond all possilnlity of
dispute. There was not room for any opinion on a
matter which was as clear as could be. And thus at
length not only did it come about that some of the
new Revenue-cutters were built on the lines of the
fast yachts, but in some occasions were even built on
the same stocks where the yachts had been laid down.
The smallef type of sailing-ships had developed to such
an extent that it had become a special branch of ship-
building, requiring a particular knowledge which the
maker of ships-o^the-line, frigates, and corvettes did
not necessarily possess. Even the two last-mentioned
types were dominated by their structural strength in
spite of their superiority of speed as compared with the
battleship. But in the case of the cutter finer work,
more scientific, and of a different nature was required.
To an experience gained originally by the building
of the older types of fore-and-afters, and improved
subsequently by the demands of racing, there had been
applied mathematical science, and aU the laws which
had been discovered by French and other naval archi-
tects. For about the close of the great Anglo-French
wars the Gallic ability in naval desi^ and construction
was pre-eminent. Had the human dement always been
of a similar excellence, perhaps the Napoleonic wars
might have ended differently. But at any rate England
was now beginning to wake up, and to learn from the
French as in previous times she had learned from the
Dutch.
We alluded just now to the increasing popularity
of the schooner in the early 'twenties in this coimtry.
For bigger vessels anxious to retain the fore-wid-art
rig, this type had much to commend it But as to its
evolution it is interesting to note that here again can
the Dutch origin be traced. The reader will recollect
two sketches which we considered in an earlier chapter,
to which we called special attention owing to the
peculiarity of their rig. One of these was from a
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 201
painting by WiUaerts, and now hangs in the Dor-
drecht Museum; the other was by an artist of the
Dutch school, and hangs in the Boijmans' Museum,
Rotterdam. Virtually these two craft were a kind of
schooner, but without either jib or staysail. Their
Dutch designation was, in spite of the fact that there
was no staysail, that of sloepe. These paintings, it
will be recollected, belonged respectively to the years
1629 and 1642.
Some of these so-called sloepes were about 24 ft
long in the mainmast, 42 ft. in length over all, with a
beam of 9 ft. Now we referred some pages back to
the colonisation of northern America by the Dutch,
who called their territory the New Netherlands, and
that which is now known as New York was called by
them New Amsterdam. Along that Atlantic shore,
stretching northwards to Gloucester and Boston, are
to be seen to this day perhaps the very finest class
of schooners in existence, or ever conceived by the
mind of designer. The reason is to be found in the
fact that the Dutch colonists took over the Atlantic
not merely their ideas of cutters and single-masted
sloops, but also the other notions of craft, including
this khid of vessel depicted in the Boijmans' Museum.
It was in 1664 that, during the Anglo-Dutch War,
the British seized New Netherlands, but that did not
mean that the whole Dutch colony vanished, nor that
the Dutch-American shipping was mstantlyto be swept
out of sight. Undoubtedly ttiis two-masted sloepe held
on. But in the year 1718 there came a change: there
was seen to be room for an improvement, for it was
realised that this " two-sticker " could be made a better
craft by adding a triangular jib as in the single-masted
sloops. And so this was done. The foremast was
was already very far forward in the eyes of the ship,
and so a broeksprit, or bowsprit, had to be added also
on which to set the jib, and so with this the schooner
as belonging to the years 1800 to 1850 came into being.
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202 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
It was then distinctly a Dutch-American craft, and not
British, and the date of the first of this new type was,
as stated, 1718. Captain Clark relates that as she was
leaving the launching ways some one exclaimed, " See
how she scoons," and from that day this prototype and
^her descendants have been called schooners}
The place where this vessel originated was Glou-
cester, and this early reputation for the two-masted
-fore-and-after has been smce continuously maintained
by that port. Two separate reasons have contributed
to the development of the Gloucester schooner.
Firstly, there was a demand for an able type of
vessel that should be capable of riding out bad
weather in the Atlantic ; and, secondly, the type that
was required must also have a good turn of speed, for
two separate kinds of people needed just such a vessel
as possessed these qualifications. In the first place,
there was the brotherhood of pilots, who were so keen
on getting to the incoming ship that they would race
for many a long mile out into the ocean so as to
arrive first. Secondly, there were the fishermen who
earned their living by going to fish off the Grand
Banks. Having filled up with the spoil of the sea,
it was their duty to hurry back to market and obtain
the best prices for their catch.
Thus, owing to the demand for these two qualities,
the Gloucester designers and builders set to work to
provide the supply, and this they did with the utmost
success. The coasters of the North Atlimtic seaboard
in northern America also took to the schooner and
gave her additional masts until as many as seven have
been seen on one of these ships. It is characteristic
that the American prefers a plain fore-and-aft schooner
and not a topsail schooner which the English coaster
utilises. These American multiple-masted schooners
^ Against this oriffizi of the word the Datoh adjectiTO "schoon" might be
employed bj those who disagree with Captain Clark. *' Sohoon," in Holland,
means ** beantifal,** ** handsome/' " fine," and ** sohoone " means ** a beantj.'*
The latter is just the expression whioh fits this craft.
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 208
need small crews, and the sheets work on horses, so
they are comparatively handy. I believe that the
largest fore-and-aft schooner, and indeed the largest
wooden sailing-ship in existence, was built last year at
Bath, U.S.A. Her name is the WyonuTigy and she
carries six masts, on which she sets the abnormal
amount of 12,000 square yards of canvas, every sail
being a fore-and-after. The hull is 850 ft. long, and
she has only 50 ft. beam — or seven beams to the
length, the old idea having been three beams to the
length. The tonnage works out at 8780 gross. The
length of her keel is 804 ft., and the depth of her
hold 80 ft. The thickness of her planking, which is
of yellow pine, is six inches. The lower masts are
126 ft. long, the topmasts are 56 ft. Steel girders
are used in the ship s construction, which would seem
to be very necessary in the case of a wooden ship of
such enormous length. Here, indeed, is a fore-and-
aft-rigged schooner which is able to carry 6000 tons
of codi, or as much as a good-sized steam tramp.
Although the Wyoming is not illustrative of the
rule of schooners, but rather the exception, yet there
are plenty of three and four-masted fore-and-afters
employed in the coasting trade of North America.
In the early years of the nineteenth century the
famous Baltimore clippers were rigged as topsail
schooners. Their two masts raked aft, and their
hulls were long, lean, and fast. They were of about
the same size as the Gloucester schooners — roughly
50 tons — and their successes as speedmakers caused
them to be copied by English shipbuilders, especially
those of the Royal Yacht Club and the Royal Navy.
How soon after that year 1718 the schooner was
introduced into England it is impossible to say ; but
in his British Mariner's Vocahuuiryy written in 1801,
Moore defines the schooner as ^'a small vessel with
two masts, whose mainsail and foresail are both sus-
pended by gaffs, like a sloop's mainsail.*' What an
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204 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
English schooner of the early 'twenties of the nine-
teenth century looked like may be seen from the
accompanying re[>roduction after Cooke (Fi£^. 49).
It will be recognised that she is a topsail schooner,
and her hull is not unlike the collier brigs of that day.
But to return to the subject of 3ie cutters, the
rig which has been more developed in this country
since the time of Charles II. than any other species
of the fore-and-after : there were sloops which in the
early eighteenth century were of such a size and sea-
worthiness as to cross the Atlantic and bring back to
the mother country supplies of timber miich the
American colonies afforded. That was a long time
before the Revolution occurred. The American
colonists at that time also largely employed the sloop
for fishing and trading purposes. Captain Clark
quotes the interesting instance of the sloop Union^ a
vessel of only 98 tons. This fore-and-after set forth
from Newport, on the Atlantic coast, ia August of
1794. Twenty-two and a half months later she re-
turned from an eventful voyage, in which time she
had circumnavigated the world. She proved herself
to be an excellent sea-boat, and is believed to be the
first sloop-rigged craft that ever sailed around the
world. She had the speed of most modem sailing-
ships, and averaged 180 knots a day.
Many readers will immediately be put in mind of
the recent famous voyage of Captain Slocum round
the world, also in a fore-and-after. This, indeed, must
reckon as a much finer achievement, since he was
single-handed and had a far smaller ship, but that
does not detract from the highly meritorious cruise
of the Union. There have been a number of English
cutters which have crossed the Atlantic to race for
the America Cup, but all these, or some of them, have
crossed as yawls, being specially jury-rigged for the
trip. And there have been numbers of schooner
yachts which have sailed and even raced from America
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Fig. 49. p. 204
Early Nineteenth Century Topsail Schooner
The schooner is in the back^ound, and her type was much influenced by the
contemporary collier brig. Notice the rake of the mainmast. (From an engraving
by E. W. Cooke.)
Fig. SO.
Yarmouth Yawl
This shows the old-fashioned North Sea herring-fishing
craft with three masts and three lugsails. It was in use in
the time of E. W. Cooke, but is now long since superseded
by the sailing ketch and the steam drifter and trawler.
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 205
to England which have been fore-and-aft rigged, but
these were at least in the position of having two masts
and would not be utteriy helpless if one carried away.
In the case of the Uvion^ she had her mast stepped
about midships, had a long hull and an exceptionally
lengthy bowsprit, which was well steeved so as to be
as high as possible above the water, somewhat after
the manner of a fiiU-rigged ship. And whilst we
are on this subject let us not forget that Captain
Amundsen's ship the Gjoa, which set forth from
Christiania in June 1908, and three and a half years
later had proved for the first time the existence of
the North- West passage and arrived at San Francisco,
was also cutter-n^ged. It is true that she was fitted
with a motor givmg the ship a speed of four knots,
but she was a smaller vessel than the Union by
some 28 tons.
Among the famous English yachts of the 'twenties
must be mentioned the Pearly the ArraWy and the
Alarm. These were all built as cutters. The Pearl
was launched in 1820 at Wyvenhoe, and was of 95
tons. The Arrow was 84 tons. She was altered and
rebuilt many times since she first appeared in 1822.
The Alarrrij which came out in 1880, was only seven
tons short of two hundred, and was one of the very
largest cutters ever built. What a gybe must have
been like round a mark-boat in a smart breeze we can
well wonder. Her origin is not without interest, for
she was designed from ue lines of a celebrated smuggler
that was captured off the Isle of Wight.
It was owing to the jbct that no time allowance was
granted that the development of size in yachts had gone
on unchecked : otherwise such a monstrosity as the
Alarm would not have appeared. Right away as far
back as the time of Charles II. the English yachts had
been ballasted with shot. It was suggested to Christo-
pher Pett that stones should be used for this purpose,
but he wisely declined to entertain such an idea on the
y
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206 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
ground that it took up too much room. In this respect
Pett was more ahead of his times than might appear,
for the ocean-going ships had for centuries had a con-
siderable amount of their valuable internal space taken
up by gravel ballast, which left but little room for the
ship's stores.
In some of the early nineteenth-century English
yachts gravel or stone blocks were still used, just as
one still finds to this day in the case of some of the
open fishing craft which go out &om the shore to their
lobster-pots. After that iron blocks were introduced,
and finally a reversion to the idea of lead. Bags of
shot were employed in the last century so that they
could easily be moved up to windward at each tack.
In 1846 lead pigs were used, and finally, ten years later,
in spite of the frownings of the pessimists, the lead
instead of being used as inside ballast was transferred
to the keel outside. After the battle of Waterloo the
sport of yachting, and so the development of yacht
architecture and everything connected with the yacht
from ballast to running gear, received the advantage
of an enthusiasm which had never previously been
granted ; and both immediately before and immediately
after the Crimean War this enthusiasm and interest had
been increased tenfold. It was because there had been
so little personal interest on the part of the owner, such
scant encouragement given to the builder, such imi-
versal ignorance extant in regard to problems of naval
design, such infrequent races for testing certain types
of hull and rigs, that the progress since the introduction
of the first Mary into our own country had been slow.
But then from about the close of the first half of
the nineteenth century a new order of things came in
owing to the opposite of those defects which we have
just noted. The peace of nations was now an assured
thing. That long era of battles which had continued
for centuries, almost since the times of our own internal
W^rs of the Roses, had come to an end. For three
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 207
hundred years we had been fighting Spain, Holland,
France, or two or more of these allied. It was there-
fore impossible that the smaller types of sailing craft —
the yacht and the smaU trader — should have a chance
of development except in short intervals of peace ; for
all the enthusiasm and workmanship had to be guided
into that channel which would bring about a ship-of-
war instead of a ship-of-trade or ship-of-pleasure.
But now all this was changed. The Victorian sove-
reignty had brought about peace and contentment, and
the effects of the great industrial revival of the previous
century had alreidy caused so much increased wealth
to our countrymen that there was an unprecedented
army of rich sportsmen from whose ranks to draw a
large band of yachtsmen. Here then was the needful
force of encouragement to builders. This was intensified
by the formation of powerful yacht clubs having for
their ol^ect, as the preamble to almost every sailing
and yacht club reads, " the improvement of yacht build-
ing and the encouragement of yacht sailing,'* " giving
the greatest latitude in the construction, ngging, and
sailii^ of vessels, consistent with their aptitude to
yachtrng.**
Between the years 1828 and 1844 the Royal Thames,
Royal Northern, Royal Western, Royal Eastern, Royal
St. George's, Royal Southern, Royal Harwich, Royal
Mersey, and Royal Victoria Yacht Clubs had been
established, additional of course to the Royal Yacht
Squadron. Thus, in all parts of the country the builders
and designers of the fore-and-aft craft received every
incentive to create the best which materials and exist-
ing knowledge could bring about. Presently these
clubs were to be added to hj the instituting of many
more similar organisations m almost every suitable
harbour or estuary in the United Kingdom. Royal
patronage had also helped, and the first royal cup was
given by William IV. to the Royal Yacht Squadron in
the year 1884.
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208 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
AU sorts of theories had for the previous hundred
years been advanced m connection with the resistance
of water in the progress of a vessel, and many an attempt
had been made to design such a hull as would offer the
least possible resistance compatible with seaworthiness.
Of these theories many were of Gallic origia But in
the 'forties Scott Russell made very valuable contri-
butions to this science, suggested certain theories for
dealing with resistance, and advocated a wave-like
system* Others have since increased this body of
information by further experiments. It was during
the 'forties that designers oegBn to realise thoroughly
that the old *' cod's nead and mackerel's tail " was a
long way from the ideal design. So in the year 1848
there was built on the Thames a cutter named the
Mosquito^ which was entirely original in that she pos-
sessed a long hoUow bow, and a short after-body of
ffreat beam, and generally was in conformity with the
unes advocated by Scott UusselL She was of 70 tons
displacement, and built not of wood but of iron. How-
ever, so great was the existing blind prejudice that she
was not popularly received.
But in the meantime the Americans had developed
the schooner and improved on the pilots and fishermen
until they were able to produce a schooner yacht
During the early 'forties the yachtsmen of the United
States had been engaged in racing both in sloop and
schooner. In 1844 a memorable race took place
between two American yachts, of which one was
the 178 ton centre-board sloop Marian which had a
clipper bow, and the other was the schooner-rigged
Coquette, of 74 tons. The result was that the
schooner won, for, thanks to the influence of the
Gloucester fishermen and pilots, this type of vessel
had been brought very close to perfection considering
the amount of knowledge then extant.
There was a man in New York of the name of
. Grcorge Steers, who had obtained a first-rate reputa-
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 209
tion for the building of crack pilot schooners, and
to him now came the commission to build a racing
schooner yacht that was to cross the Atlantic on
her own bottom and see what she could do in
English waters against English craft. We are not
writing a history of the sport of yachting, but only
of the developments of ng and hull as that sport
has affected the same. Therefore we need not foUow
this yacht into all her activities over here. But when
we say that she was the famous America^ after which /
the historic races for the America Cup have been
named, the reader will not feel himself disinterested.
We may add briefly that after being built at a
cost of £4000 she reached Cowes in August of 1851,
and on the 22nd of that month won the special cup
offered by the Royal Yacht Squadron. She beat the
best of our crack cutters and schooners so handsomely,
and was so ^at a departure in many of her features
from the existing British convention, that it did not
take our fellow-coimtrymen long to realise that the
A7nerica was mostly right and we were mostly wrong.
To begin with, the America had similar lines to the
despised Mosquito of a few years earlier, and the
characteristics of the Yankee were, briefly, small dis-
placement, small midships sectional area, and her hull
was distinctly small in proportion to her dimensions.
Her water-lines were also much sharper than had pre-
viously been attempted in the case of large yachts.
She was also a contrast in other respects as com-
pared with the best contemporary English yachts.
Firstly, she was a schooner, whereas most of our
yachts were cutters. Secondly, her sails, unlike those
horrible-looking windbags which we have seen from
DanieU and Cooke, were cut so that when set they
were tight and flat. Consequently, with the fine
entrance lines of the hull and the well-fitting sails
to propel her the America went to windward in a
splendid manner.
o
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210 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
After her departure there remained her influence.
As the America had been a schooner, the Alarm
(198 tons) was in 1852 lengthened by 20 feet at the
bow and rigged as a schooner, which made her to
be of 248 tons. As the America had the newer tjrpe
of close-fitting, flat sails, so the Alarm copied her
example, and she subsequently appeared with one
enormous triangular jib but no staysail, the foresail
having a gaff but no boom, and the mainsail with
both Doom and gaff. In other words, she was very
similar to the prevailing pilot schooners of North
America. Furthermore, mstead of the old idea
which England had copied from the Dutch, to which
she still clung, in having the loose-footed mainsail,
the latter was laced to the spar, the jib worked on
the forestay and was laced along the foot to a boom
also.
The net result of all this was that English sail-
makers began to cut better sails and English designers
began to evolve better hulls. For a time, from about
1852 to 1865, there was a craze for American centre-
board craft, but there was also a craze for schooners,
thanks to the America's success. In the 'sixties the
yawl rig also became the fashion, following the popu-
larity of the schooner, for it provided a half-way stage
between the schooner and the single-masted cutter.
But it is when we come to study the ten years
that are covered by the dates 1870 and 1880 that we
begin to see a still greater activity. It had been
preceded by a fine fleet of cutter yachts that included
the famous Oimara, built in 1867, and still used, but
as a houseboat in Poole Harbour, above bridge. Her
spars were all big, and her great topmast and lengthy
bowsprit were characteristic of that period. The
tonnage of this vessel is 185. The AUne and
Egeria also belong to this period, the former being
historic as having been the first yacht to discard the
rake which was always given to the mast previously.
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• • • • • •*
% • • • • • •
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 112
The 'seventies saw a real awakening in yachting —
a new birth as it were. There were big schooners,
cutters, and yawls, and yacht-building yards were
busily employed. It was during this period that the
famous forty-tonners came into being that numbered
in their class among others the well-known Foxhound
and Bloodhound. The last mentioned has attracted
an increased amoimt of attention by her return to
racing during this twentieth century. She was
recently altered by Fife, and has done remarkably
well in handicap races when we recoUect her great
age as compared with modem flyers. Under the
new modification the Bloodhound was given a raised
sail-plan, and the ballast was brought lower down.
In addition to this the forefoot was cut away, and
she was thus made quicker in stays.
But besides these celebrated forty-tonners we must
call attention to the equally famous JuUanaVy which
was representative not of a class but as a special and
original creation. The Jvllanar^ which we nave here
reproduced in Fig. 51, from the model in the South
Kensington Museum, is indeed a milestone on the
road which begins in the late sixteenth century and
reaches on to the present day. Perhaps there was
no designer of the fore-and-aft rig of our own time
that did so much for this development as the late
Mr. G. L. Watson. His name was associated with
a fleet of crack yachts that is too numerous to give
here. And when it is remembered that Mr. Watson
frankly admitted that he himself was considerably
influenced in his designing by the lines of the
JuUanary we have every right to regard this vessel
as one of the highest importance. To some extent
the exceUent illustration will here speak for itself,
and the fewest words will sujffice to demonstrate her
especial features. Her birthplace was in Essex, that
county which has brought forth so many famous craft
and equally famous saUor-men.
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212 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
Designed by m Mr. E. H. Benthall, the JuUanar^
of 126 tons» was built in the year 1875. In this model
the old-fashioned strai^rht stem and the old-time stem
have vanished altogether. There is not a trace — ^in
detail at least — of the former Dutch influence. Har
bow, however, shows some connection with the pre-
vailing schooner of that period, and so with the clipper-
ships which were then &st coming to the end of their
limit of usefulness. This yacht showed herself such a
success, and possessed of so great a speed, that Mr.
Watson based his design for the famous Thistle on the
lessons to be learned Irom the Essex craft, idthough
the Thistle did not actually appear till the year 1887*
It was in the year 1875 that the Yacht Racing
Association was established, and it is important to
bear in mind the existence of that society, for it has
been a powerful controlling agent ever since that date
in detennining the trend of the architecture of our
yachts. The object aimed at throughout the history of
these measurement rules has been to cause, if possible,
the winning boat to attain victoiy not by reason of
her size, but ovring to her superiority of model. This
of course eliminates for the moment the important
question of the human element, which, after all, is
nequently the means of separating a loss from a win.
But it is impossible to legislate for such uncertainties
as human ability, though the aim of the niles being
as indicated, it throws a very heavy onus on the
designer. It is only reasonable and fair that the yacht
which wins should be the fastest for her size, and that
her victory should ^o not to the millionaire necessarily,
but to the most scientific creation. In both cases, the
small and the large, the element of good seamanship,
of nerve, of personal daring and mental ability, are
entirely essential. Given equal chances, and two
vessels of almost equallv good design, the winning
gun will go almost certainly to the ^tter helmsman,
even if his crew is slightly the inferior of his rival
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 218
It cannot be denied that the different measurement
rules in some years have retarded rather than assisted
the progress of a sound, healthy type. But this was
almost inevitable in the case of a comparatively unde-
veloped sport in which science and the knowledge only
to be obtained from experience enter so much. Perhaps
it was necessarv to make mistakes in order to learn for
future years wnat was necessarily to be avoided. For
whenever it is announced by the authority that such
and such a feature will be taxed, it becomes the duty
of the designer to bring about such a yacht as will be
able to su&r least by those restrictions. His duty is
to cheat the rule as far as possible, so that the yacht
will not be penalised unduly.
We have no intention to try the reader's attention
by placing before him a number of mathematical
formulae, which belong to the more detailed considera-
tion of the subject and would detract from the clear-
ness of our vista. But we may say at once that the
first method of finding the common denominator was
by means of the Thames measurement, a system that
was found wanting and subsequently altered.
This newest arrangement led to the production of
a tjrpe of yacht that was altogether unhappy and a
mistake. The new rule had the effect of encouraging
the designers to make a craft extremely long, very
deep, and excessively narrow, so that they were
familiarly known as " planks-on-edge." It was a
thoroughly unwholesome type, and required a perfect
lead mine to keep them upright. The reader will
remember that in the olden days the principle was
three beams to the length. So far had the reaction
now set in that the case of a craft having a length
six times that of her beam actually occurred. She had
on her keel an amount equal to about one-half of her
displacement tonnage, whilst she could not carry the
fiill amount of sail that a vessel of that tonnage should
have been expected to carry. The fact was that the
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214 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
measurement rules penalised all yachts with beam, and
so the designers were driven to make vessels deeper,
but, so to speak, as narrow as a plank when set on
its edge.
In the year 1877 the plank-on-edge became obsolete,
the system of measuring yachts by their tonnage was
discarded, and a system of rating by length on the
water-line and sail-area was adopted. The effect of
this was to penalise only the yacht's water-line and
her sail-area. The designer's object, therefore, was
not to bring out a narrow, deep craft, but it was left to
him to give her as short a water-line length as he liked,
and to cut down her sail-area« Now it is evident that
this did not put a tax on the length-over-aU, so conse-
quently one of the ideas demonstrated in the JtUlanar
was here at hand waiting to be developed, and the
design permitted long overhangs at bow and stern,
which were not penalised* Through this a much better
type of yacht was evolved, for her overhangs made her
a drier and better boat altogether. Beam was not
penalised, and there was an opportunity to build a
t3rpe that was healthy and sensible, and thus it became
possible for such excellent craft as the Creole^ Queen
Mob, Corsair^ and others to come into being, yachts
whose names and hulls are still fresh in the memory
of many yachtsmen.
Thus at last, after centuries of learning and experi-
ment, after much ignorance and many a mistake, the
cutter had become very nearly perfect, a fast yet good
sea-boat, handy yet comfortable, stiff yet not unduly
iMdlasted, a real ship and not a racing machine. Cotton
and silk sails had been adopted, and about the year
1866 a new sail, the spinnaker, had been brought into
use, and utilised to enormous areas on the racing
yachts especially. The first occasion in which a yacht
carried this sail was, I believe, the Niobe. Its deriva-
tion can easily be traced to the studding-sail, which
was still in use during the 'sixties on the clippers and
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 215
the auxiliary men-of-war in the service. But there
was evidently a desire for such a sail manv years before
this, for there is on record an incident belonging to the
year 1797. In that year the yacht Blue I)ragon was
racing in a match on the Thames, and was disqualified
for having boomed out her jib during the race.
It is, then, from the 'nineties of the nineteenth cen-
tury that the next awakening comes in the development
of tiie fore-and-aft yacht. In the early stages yachtinff
was exclusively a rich man's recreation. Even up tin
the 'seventies it was still a close preserve, and owed its
success almost as much to its social connection as for
piure sport. But from, at any rate, the 'nineties, yacht-
mg — ^the enthusiasm for the fore-and-after — began to
receive adherents in tens where previously it had been
only bv units. It was not merely the nobleman nor
the miUionaire who now put to sea in his own craft. It
was the comparatively poor man who, content to dis-
pense with the expensive crew, and happy to cruise or
race in smaller craft, swelled the rauKS of the keen
yachtsmen. The 'eighties had seen him coming, but
the 'nineties saw him fully arrived. The consequence
is that a whole army of designers and builders have
arisen intent on creating, not hundred-ton racing
machines, but anjrthing from a dinghy to twenty tons.
All sorts of improvements as to design, internal accom-
modation, rigging, and so on, have been evolved for the
**poor" man's benefit. In short, as the democratic
spirit was spreading on land, so it was to manifest itself
aBoat.
Having now traced the evolution of the fore-and-aft
yacht up to the commencement of the last decade of
the nineteenth century, we may leave that branch of
our subject for a little and pass on. It has intentionally
been our purpose to deal with the development of the
yacht to such an extent, for that is the craft which has
done more for the evolution of the fore-and-aft rig than
the pilot or the fisherman, reckoned as an historic whole.
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216 INFLUENCE OF HOLLAND ON
Even in the early days of the nineteenth century, an
erstwhile yacht was often to end her life as a fisher-
man. Gradually both fishermen and pilots — especially
when stationed at some yachting resort — ^have now
b^^n to adopt some improvement first seen and de-
veloped on the yacht. It is true that the yachtsman
has had much to learn from both these two classes of
seamen, but the converse is also true if we look at the
matter as a period and not in anv particular year.
There are certain types of the fore-and-aft rig, as,
for instance, the luggers, which can have but little
attraction for the amateur sailor-man except for quite
small craft. This rig he cannot be said, then, to have
assisted in developing. But most certainly he has helped
to convince the fisherman that to be a good, sound sea-
worthy, sea-keeping craft, the fishing- vessel need not
necessarily be blufi^ or clumsy, need not even be slow.
On the other hand, the yachtsman has learned from
the professional the value of strong but simple gear, of
not overburdening his ship with too many " patents."
He has learned, too, that while "putty and paint
cover a multitude of blemishes," yet there is some-
thing to be said for having a vessel decorated as if she
were meant for service and not for show. It is this
delightful spirit, in fact, of mutual improvement and
mutual sjrmpathy — I dare not say admiration — which
has done and is doing much for the amelioration of the
fore-and-after. Most of those able hands on our crack
racing-yachts go back to their fishing-boats during the
winter. They bring to their work on the yacht a
knowledge of seamanship, a sea-sense that could not
be excelfed. But they go back to their clumsier craft
with some reverence and respect for science as applied
to the ship.
Similarly the yachting enthusiast, from his associa-
tion with the fisherman or the coaster, unlearns a good
deal of fancy theory and acquires a new standard by
which to work. Time has wrought many changes on
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG 217
both yachts and fishing vessels during the last sixty
years, and we have alreadv been enabled to watch some
of the main causes which have been at the origin of
these. The old-fashioned methods were found want-
ing, and it was high time that a new order of things
should come about. Whilst we can never be too
grateful to the Dutch for having shown us the broad
essentials at first, yet we have not rested content with
that. America has given us ideas, as we saw just now
in regard to the two-master, the design of hulls, and the
cut of sails. But these Dutch and American ideas have
been assimilated and improved on — ^they have been
mingled with those scientific ideas which we learnt
direct from the French, so that finally an English fore-
and-after is something distinct, something characteristic
of its nationality, something which actually reacts on
Holland, America, and France that were its own teachers
in part.
But we have dealt onlv with a portion of this de-
velopment of the fore-and-aft rig. Before we have
finished our task we must needs see to what stages of
development northern Europe of to-day has attained
in its fore-and-afters. We have closely studied the
past ; let us now look into the present. And for this
purpose we shall examine the fore-and-afters of this
twentieth century as we find them in Scandinavian
waters, in HoUwd, Bel^um, France, the waters of
the United Kingdom, as well in yachts as in traders,
fishermen, and pilot craft. By this means we shall
have made our pictiure as complete as we can hope
to P&int it.
Types are themselves most interesting, but one
sacrifices half the pleasure and interest if we know not
why and how such types have evolved. The mind is
not satisfied to consider a phenomenon; it aspires to
know the cause thereof. It is in this spirit, then, that
we may now proceed with confidence to see the modem
expressions of that rig whose first beginnings we have
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218 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG
endeavoured to trace. And we shall illustrate these
types from sketches of the actual craft, from photo-
graphs, from models, and from the plans of those
designers who have been accustomed to design these
vessels, whose names as experts in these, particular craft
are recognised by those who have the duty of sailing in
them. It shall be our endeavour by these means to put
all doubt beyond possibility of occurring.
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CHAPTER VII
THE FOKE-AND-AFT KIG TO-DAY IN GREAT BRITAIN
AND AMERICA
IT is not to be expected that every single variation
of the fore-and-aft rig can possibly be minutely
examined within the number of pages here allotted.
Such a demand would take up more space than we
have at our disposal. And yet as we look through the
material which is here gathered together, it will be
found that the most representative and the most
interesting examples of the fore-and-aft rig as to-day
it manifests itself in different localities have been
brought under our gaze. As we pursue our way
through our own country, through the countries of
northern Europe and America ; as we stop to note
first in one region and then in another the different
ways in which the shipman has seen fit to modify the
rig for local usage and his own especial purposes, we
shall encompass practically the whole of the subject.
And if we should feel inclined to wonder that there
should be so many species of the genus, it is not diffi-
cult to find a reason. It will generally be found that
the local craft employed in any particular district is
that which is best suited for that re^on. There are
special inducements, for example, that influence the
fisherman in some parts of the country to put to sea in
the lugger, whilst another kind of fishing work, with
the home harbours of a difierent character and the
fishing grounds many miles further out, demands a
type of rig totally difierent firom the lug. It may be
219
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220 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
the ketch or it may be the cuttert but as a general
rule the fisherman knows what is best for Im own
branch of the industiy.
We say generally » for some allowance must be made
for human nature — for ignorance, conservatism, and
pig-headedness. It is proof of his fallibility that in
many an instance he has seen fit to change from the
lugsail to the cutter or ketch. Had the lug really
been the ideal rig there would have been no reason
for changing. In some cases it is true that certain
new conmtions, such as the formation of new channels,
the constructing of new harbour- works, the discovery
of other fishing ^unds, have made it more con-
venient to adopt, it may be, a handier rig for beating
to windward, for working short tacks, for canying a
good deal of way on so as to shoot well inside the
entrance to the haven, or for making longer passages.
But these are rather in the nature of exceptions. In
the olden days, for instance, the herring-fishing craft
of Great Yarmouth were still three-masted luggers,
with a rig that was akin to the old Dutch three-masted
buss-ships, except that the latter were square-rigged,
and with a huO that was highly reminiscent of the
Scheveningen pink. That was so as late as about 1880.
Such hulls as remain of these old Yarmouth " yawl "
type are now cutter-rigged and employed as pleasure
l>oats during the summer from the beach. A glance
at the reproduction here given (Fig. 50) from Cooke
should be followed by reference to the hull of the
Dutch pink to be found on another page.
We may take it as a general law that when two
coasts, irrespective of nationality, are separated by not
more than about a hundred miles of sea, the differing
craft of those two nations will influence each other.
The reason is not far to seek. The fishermen go out
to the open sea from both sides. They even run into
each others* ports sometimes through stress of weather
or other cause. You see Lowestoft drifters in Ostend
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 221
harbour, and you see Frenchmen, Dutchmen, and Bel-
flans in Lowestoft. You see French fishermen off the
ciUies and in Fahnouth harbour; you see Englidi
fishermen in the French ports. And as the progress of
time has gone on an opportunity has been afforded
of mutual appreciation or criticism of the craft of
other nationalities.
And this has not unnaturally occurred with greatest
frequence in the case of those fishing ports which more
or less directly face each other. For instance, Great
Yarmouth and Scheveningen, Sussex and the French
coast, Scotland and Norway, have each other for
opposite neighbours, and we are not surprised to find
that the pink resembles the old-fashioned Yarmouth
herring-lugger, and that the Hastings, Brighton, and
other Sussex luggers have a bond of relationship which
binds them to the luggers of the north French coast,
while the hulls of many of the older-fashioned Scotch
fishing craft are allied by a similar influence to the
craft of Norway. Just as it was the custom for the
smugglers to run across from France to the ports on
the southern English shore that were in a direct line,
so in the same way has the influence of rig come along
the shortest route and requiring the least effort.
As it was yesterday, so it is to-day. Years ago our-
south-coast fishermen copied the lugsails of the French:
that was in the eighteenth centiuy, and not anterior to
the year 1770. 'l\)-day the French luggers are slowly
but surely being replaced by the English type of ketch.
In the olden days tne Enghsh used to look to Holland ,
for improvements in fishing gear ; but whilst these
pages were being written a Dutch ship came over,
entered Great Yarmouth, and loaded up with a large
cargo of English-made nets for the fisheries of the
Low Countries.
It is obvious, then, that the bald statement that
whatever craft may be found in use in any particular
locality is therefore the best for such a region, must be
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222 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
modified by an additional assertion that it is the best
only until something better is tried. Otherwise the
lugger would not have been supplanted by the ketch,
and the ketch by the steam trawler. There was a time
when the blufi-bowed craft was thought to be ideal for
sea-work, but no one would to-day make such an
assertion in the face of the cleaner, finer lines which
are accepted by yacht as well as fishing-boat.
We spoke just now of the Sussex luggers. They
are still to be seen in the English Channel One meets
them at work in Dungeness Bay, or off Fairliffht, or
between Newhaven and Selsey Bill, and at night the
sea is dotted with a pattern of small yellow lights as
they pursue their calling, looking at a distance for all
the world like so many glow-worms. Like the Scotch-
man, the Cornishman, and the Manxman, the Sussex
fisherman still sticks to the lug because he has not yet
advanced to the belief which is shared by Yarmouth,
Lowestoft, the Thames estuary, Ramsgate, Spithead,
Poole, Brixham, Plymouth, and Lancashire that the
cutter or ketch is the better type of riff. According as
to whether these luggers have to be oeached, to keep
afloat in deep harbours, or to take the ground at low
tide, so the Imes of their hull have been modified, but
the lugsail as a rig has continued.
In the illustration (Fig. 52) Cooke gives us a type
of the Brighton mackerel craft of the year 1880. These
boats were known as hoggies. With their round, blufi^
bows, their foresail worMng on the forestay, with their
sprit-mainsail and their leeboards, thev showed a curious
exception to the all-prevailing French lugger. On one
of these boats astern to the left of the picture it will be
seen that, additional to the foresail, main, and mizzen,
there was sometimes also set a jib, for which purpose a
bowsprit was run out.
The same artist in other of his pictures, both coloiur
and etchings, shows us these craft hauled up on the
beach (Fig. 68). They had transom stems, were very
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Fig. 53.
Brighton Hoggies
p. 222
Notice the ledge on which the leeboard can rest. The bumpkin was
always sweated well down as here shown. (After E. W. Cooke.)
Fig. 54-
Scarborough "Mule"
This type of Yorkshire cobble has a whaler stem instead of the
older transom stem.
P. 222
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GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 228
tubby, clinker-built, and had a couple of bilge-keels on
either side of the hull. They were given a half-deck
from forward to the mast. The bobstay led out to the
end of the bumpkin, which was bowsed down to such an
extent that the bumpkin pointed it^ nose down to the
water instead of up to the sky as in the old-fashioned
Dutch craft. The forestay, which led to the outer end
of this bumpkin, was secured by means of a couple of
blocks. The mast was supported by a single shroud
on either side, which could be tightened by means
of a couple of blocks, and the mainsheet worked on a
horse.
Some, but not all, of these craft carried a mizzen,
and very interesting to note is that very Dutch-like
ledge we demonstrated in an earlier chapter, which is
used for resting the leeboard when not in use for wind-
ward work, and is also seen in these crafL But simul-
taneous with the existence of these boats were the
Brighton luggers as weU. They were two-stickers,
one mast being placed in the very eyes of the boat, the
little mizzen being stepped as far astern as it could be
placed, and given an outrigger for working the mizzen-
sheet. Having arrived at the fishing grounds, the big
mast was lowered down into a substantial crutch, while
the little mizzen helped to keep the craft's head to wind.
The bilge-rest, as in the Dutchmen and the hoggies,
was also retained. It was useful when these somewhat
deep-bodied boats were beached, but its origin would
seem to have come from Holland, whence certain other
of the features of its hull most certainly originated.
More correctly stated, we might remark that the hoggie
was the bearer of the Dutch influence, and that this boat
conveyed certain of her foreign features to the Brighton
lugger.
We may well be proud as a nation that we have
done what we have for the cause of ship development.
But as soon as we begin to examine into the evolution
of any craft, large or small, fore-and-aft or square-
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224 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
rigffed that hail from any of our ports, we forthwith
r^ise that there is, strictly spealang, no such thing
as a pure-bred English sailing vessel. Every craft
that is of English registration, build, or design is a
mongrel. She is ifi part Scandinavian, in part Dutch,
in part French, and as regards sails, especially in the
case of the schooner-riff, partly American. And, as we
have seen, further back still these craft are Mediter-
ranean and even Oriental. It is as an adapter, as an
improver on other nations' ideas that we have excelled,
rather than as real originators.
It is just and proper that we should exult in our
pride of country, in our record as sailor-men and ship-
men, but we must not let our enthusiasm carry us away
so that we forget the measure of our indebtedness to
other countries. Only in the steamship, both for war
and for peace, can we be said to have been the prime
cause, to have led the way, and even this triumph
would never have come about but for the data which
sailing vessels of previous ages had provided for the
construction of the hulls.
We referred just now to the relation of Norway to
Scotland in the matter of the fore-and-after. This is
no fanciful but a real relation. Up to about the year
1860 the Scotch fishing craft were altogether influenced
by the boats across the North Sea, and to-d^ there is
still a strong family likeness in the hulls. It is only
because bigger, decked, and generally more seaworthy
craft were required so as to ply the industry further out
from the shore that the Norwegian model began to be
greatly modified. Carvel-built boats replaced the old
clinker type, which had existed right from the time
when the Vikings used to construct ships; the old
square-sail of the Norse kings had become a lug, and
because of the Scottish national characteristic for stub-
bornness the lug has been continued since it has been
in use for so long a period and every man and boy
brought up to usmg it. There was a brief interval
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 225
when the smack-rig was employed, but to-day the lug-
sail is doing much more than holding its own.
It would be an interesting study to discuss separately
the varying qualities of the " nabbies," " skiffs," " zulus,"
and otner species of these Scotch craft did our space
permit. But underlying them is the broad influence of
the whale-boat, and so of the Norwegian and the Viking
craft The influence of Holland in relation to the
Scotch craft is practically nil, and this is surprising
when we consider that in the early seventeenth century,
and earlier still, great fleets of herring-busses used to
cross the North Sea from the Netherlands and fish off
the north-east Scottish coast. Certainly as regards
influence Scotland has always been much nearer to
Scandinavia than to Holland. No one who has been
to the Orkneys and Shetlands can have failed to have
been struck with the existence of certain characteristics
common to the two peoples on either side of the sea ;
and this similarity is confined not merely to the people,
but it manifests itself in even some of the smallest
rowing-boats. The skiffs and herring-boats of Denmark,
of Norway, and the Baltic have clearly cast their spell
over the Scotch fisherman. In Norway the old historic
square-sail of the Vikings has not vanished utterly,
but it has in many species of craft been turned into a
lugsail, and this lugsail came over not unnaturally to
Scotland as well.
The use of bowlines to cause the square-cut sail to
set better is one of the oldest customs of European
seamanship. This has been in vogue in Norway, Hol-
land, France, and England for many a long year. In
England the bowlines were employed at any rate during
the early Tudor period, and their origin was in all pro-
bability due to the Norse seamen of the Middle Ages.
The Blankenberg luggers — only but recently obsolete
— used bowlines for the better set of their sails when
on a wind, just as we saw in another chapter the Dutch-
men so acted. And it is another proof of the close
p
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226 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
connection between Norww and Scotland that until
comparatively recently the Scotch " skaffies " followed
this Morse custom also.
Forty years ago the Loch Fyne skifBs were small
open craft of about five-and-twenty feet over all. The^
were undecked, and they were towed, a couple at a
time, by the smacks to engage in the seine-net trawling.
The next step was to be independent of the smack,
so instead of the hands sleeping on board the latter
they had huts on shore. From that it came about that
the ski£^ developed into a larger size, and so the crew
were able to live on board. The bigger type <^ sldflT
was found generally more advanta^ieous, and could
hurry ahead very quickly and much faster than the
oared boats as soon as a shoal offish was descried. The
smaller examples of this boat are still used for white
fishing.
As we leave Scotland with its Norse-like hulls and
its lugs, we do not instantly get away from the Nor-
wegian influence. The coast of Yorksmre is famous for
its special breed of boats, although to be correct this
type belongs to a region that reaches as far north as
Northumberland and as far south as Great Yarmouth.
The cobble has been called the most peculiar type of
craft to be seen anywhere on our English coasts, but
she is peculiar only, relatively speaking, just as the
Viking ship to-day would be called curious among
modem vessels. Like the Scotch fishing-boat, and
for the same reason, the Yorkshire cobble is of
Norwegian descent. Time has brought about sundry
modifications as to detail, which is inevitable ; but as a
whole the cobble, even as seen to-day, is very Scandi-
navian in her appearance. They are not the type of
craft to suit every one, for they have such special
peculiarities of their own that only the expert can
handle them. They have been called incomprehensible
craft, but as one who has known them for over a
quarter of a century and watched them out in all
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Fig.SS
Old Yarmouth Cobble
p. 229
This is now an obsolete Norfolk type, but it was in use during E. W. Cooke's time. With
its transom stern and its lugsail and bilge keels it much resembles the older .type of Yorkshire
cobble.
Fig. 56.
Scarborough Ketch
p. 229
This is one of the vessels engaged in North Sea line-fishing,
the Lowestoft drifters she has no boom to her mainsail.
Like
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 227
weathers, it seems difficult to realise that this stigma
should attach to them.
They are indeed crotchetty creatures if not handled
in the right way, but their existence is reasonable if we
remember firstly their Norwegian ancestry, and secondly f
the purposes for which they have always been intended. [
They date back before the time when deep harbours
began to be made, and they are practically a kind of
whale-boat, but designed specially for beaching. Like
the ships of the time of ancient Greece, tiiey are
beached stem first, and for this reason the floor runs
aft very flat, bilge-keels being below that so as to keep
them upright on the sand. Their greatest draught is
forward, where the keel is able to get a good grip on
the water. The stern of the pure type of cobble is
broad and square, and the entrance is fine, while the
bows have plenty of freeboard. They go to windward,
but when running firee they are very erratic and danger-
ous craft except to the man who has been brought up
in these boats ; and along the coast-line of Northumber-
land, Durham, and Yorkshire many a disaster to these
craft has come in spite of the hereditary ability of their
crew. They tend to run along too fast and to gripe
very badly and then broach-to. A wave then fills tiiem
up, and before long the clifis of Flamborough look
down and see yet another addition to the long list of
cobble casualties.
If she is out in bad weather and seems to be taking
charge, a hand is sent forward to stand by the halyards
of the lugsail ready to lower instantly if need be. On
a wind these craft are no dull sailers, and it is a treat
to watch them running along near the land in a nice
off-shore breeze. The rudder of these boats comes
down a good foiur feet below the keel, and herein
north would seem to meet south. For it is this same
peculiarity of de^ rudder which is noticeable in the
sailing vessels of Venice and the pilot and fishing craft
of Marseilles. The rig of the cobble consists of a lug.
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228 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
but sometimes a jib is carried on a temporary bowsprit.
In eflTeet the deep rudder acts as a centreboard aft to
make up for the lack of grip which only the forefoot
possesses. The cobble is poled off from the beach just
as was the custom of the old Greek ships, and as soon
as deep water has been reached the rudder is placed
in situ and the sail is (]^uickly hoisted.
The harbours of Whitby, Scarborough, Bridlington,
and the beaches of Filey and elsewhere on this part of
the coast afford plenty of opportunities for studying
this Norse-like craft. Their Imes are not displeasing to
the eye, and the sheer is especially attractive. Clinker-
built, like the old Norse craft, with a raking transom-
stem and a raking mast on which a dipping lugsail is
set, a long tiller is provided for the helmsman. The
smaller type of cobble measures about 28 ft. long, 5^ ft.
beam, ana is 2^ ft. in depth, the capacity being three
tons ; whilst the larger type, capable of carrying nine
tons, is just under 84 ft. long by 10 ft. wide and 4f ft.
deep.
But at Filey and Scarborough there is now built a
slightly different type of cobble called a " mule," and it
is this species which is here illustrated in the accompany-
ing photograph of a Yorkshire cobble running into
Scarborough harbour under reefed canvas (Fig. 54).
These ** mules" have not the transom but a whaler
stem, as will be noticed, the reason being that this
whaler-ending is better for running before a big sea and
wind. These boats are rowed not by means of the
usual pattern of oars and metal rowlocks. Instead^
there is a single thole-pin, and a kind of cringle is
attached to the oar, which broadens out at its centre.
The cringle slips over the thole-pin, and thus the oars
can be immediately let go and allowed to float on the
water without any fear of their breaking adrift. The
only part of the country where I remember to have seen
these oars on the south coast is in Lulworth Cove.
As to the now obsolete Yarmouth cobble, the
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 229
accompanying illustration (Fig, 55) after Cooke, done
in 1828, will afford a good idea, and show the kin-
ship between the transom-stemed Yorkshire and the
transom-stemed Norfolk types. In the latter, as in the
former, the bilge-keels for beach work are seen here to
exist. The rudder came down several feet below the
keel, and the other features of the flat floor aft and the
deep forefoot were also preserved in the Yarmouth
type as long as it lasted. Recent years have made
many changes in the vessels of Great Yarmouth, but
it is worth noting that by reason of its double proximity
both to Norway and to Holland there should have
continued till well into the middle of the nineteenth
century a type of the Scandinavian craft as seen in
the cobble, and of the Dutch craft as seen in the
beach-yawl.
As late as the 'seventies the rig of the North Sea
fisherman was the lug, but, as we saw in the case of
the yacht's evolution, the tendency of the fore-and-
after throughout her history has ever been to increase
in size, and if in size then in sail-area. Now there
comes a point when the lugsail is found to be of too
great a measurement to be handled either conveniently «
or with safety. Therefore the ketch rig with all its
handiness — its sail-area cut up so as to be capable of
being managed with the smallest crew and with the
minimum of effort, its convenience for working into
narrow harboiu^ and through narrow channels — ^was
adopted. In the accompanjdng photograph >Fig. 56)
is seen a Scarborough ketch of a somewhat old-iashioned
type engaged in line-fishing. Like her the Lowestoft
drifter has no boom to her mainsail, though she carries
one on her mizzen.
It is a fine sight to witness the harboiu^ of Yar-
mouth, Lowestoft, and Ramsgate when the fleet of
fishing craft are in port. It is fine to regard the forest
of masts representing so many able fore-and-afters that
can face almost any North Sea gale with pluck and
^
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280 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
endurance, confident of riding out the worst weather
in a manner that brings credit to a fine breed of ships
and men. But, sentimentally, it is sad to find that the
steam trawler is causing these ships rapidly to become
obsolete. In some parts of the coast, notably in Scot-
land and Cornwall, the auxiliary motor is fast becoming
recognised as the handmaid of the sail ; yet the stress
and hurry of shore life are having their efiect on the
fishing trade, and so on the ships themselves and their
means of propulsion. But Ramsgate still sticks to its
sailing fleet; its harbour is not exactly suitable for
steam fishing vessels, and they who would be sorry to
see such fine craft as those which put to se^ from the
Kentish port will not be sorry that local conditions are
unfavourable to the mechanically propelled ships.
One of the most interesting features of the busy
Thames estuary is the bawley, some idea of which is
to be obtained from the photographs (Figs. 57 and 58).
Of these, one (Fig. 58) is a pilot craft, the other a
fisherman. In tiiis riff we come back again to find some-
thing of the Dutch mifluence still preserved ; for, with
her gaff— but boomless — mainsail (which is shortened
by means of brails) we have the identical principle
which the second Mary yacht of Charles II. possessed
in her rig.
What especially strike the eye are the very lonff
bowsprit and gaff which these bawleys are given. And
yet they are both fisust and handy, and the brailing
arrangement enables them quickly to get snug when
bad weather comes up. For the seas of the Thames
estuary, with their deep hollows and short, steep waves,
are sometimes as much as a small craft can tolerate.
Dodging in and out among the shallows and sand-
banks these craft must needs be both handy and good
sea*boats. The topmast is a long one, but as soon as it
is housed the bawley is able, with her shortened canvas,
to render a very good account of herself. She can
quickly trice up her tack, brail in her main, set a small
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 281
storm-jib, and she is ready to fight her way through
the bad weather which is breaking over her. Frankty,
she is not a pretty craft, but handsome is as hand-
some does. Her toj^mast is actually several feet lonffer
than the mast, and m fine weather she sets a topsail of
considerable size. But whatever her merits as a sea-
keeping craft, as a wage-earner ; whatever her defects
may be as a sightly craft, she is to us, who have watched
the evolution c^ the fore-and-aft rig, of special interest
owing to her resemblance to the seventeenth-century
rig of Holland. She wisely does not yearn for a sprit,
though in other respects she has many similarities to
the Thames barge. Not in hull but in the style of
her rig she is the one example of the cutter, which
is very like the sloops that were seen in Holland and
England three hundred years ago.
It is highly probable that her origin may be traced
directly to the time when the Thames estuary was
accustomed to seeing much more clumsy craft, yet
with a rig that survives to this day in the same waters.
We may compare these photographs with the frontis-
piece and the Van der Velde sketches of this book, and
we shall find that though in the modem craft the
bowsprit is not steeved as it was, and that the square
topsail has disappeared, yet otherwise the principle is
the same. That this seventeenth-century rig should
in the twentieth century be still found satisfactory,
and so little modified as in these bawleys, is proof
enough of the high rank of perfection to which the
Dutdi shipman of yesterday should have attained. He,
indeed, was living at a time when invention was neither
as rapid nor as easy as to-day. And yet when put face
to face with similar problems as confront our modern
shipmen, he was able to evolve a very satisfactory and
usdful solution.
And whilst we are in the Thames estuary and are
speaking of Holland, let us not forget to mention the
Thames barge, to whose characteristics we have been
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282 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
compelled to allude on several occasions above. It
was because the set of conditions that obtained in the
Dutch waterways was in many respects reproduced
over here in the Thames and Medway that a similarity
of rig, modified for local peculiarities, should also ble
adopted. Consider for a moment what these conditions
are. The Dutch cargo-carrier had to be not too big to
be able to pass into the locks. She had to be sufficiently
handy to work short tacks, and she could not draw
much water. But since wind against tide in the Maas
and the Scheldt quickly raise a nastv sea, these vessels
had to be fit for something more than mere smooth-
water sailing. In order to render them capable of
being worked by a small crew, and to facilitate shorten-
ing canvas immediately, some system had to be em-
ployed that would not ruin her speed too much. Thus,
to satisfy all these requirements, the Dutch created a
big-bellied, round, shaUow craft, with staysail and sprit-
mainsail, with leeboards, with adequate freeboard, with
decks, with brails, and so on.
The Dutchman was given a flat floor so that she
could take the ground. The Thames barge is flat for
the same reason — so that she may be able at high water
to get right alongside the wharf and, when the tide
ebbs, she may be able to sit upright and load or dis-
charge her cargo. The barge also must be both handy
and seaworthy : she must be able to turn to windward
in narrow, and nowadays exceedingly crowded, reaches.
And she must be able to go through the amount of
sea- work for which she is intended. The Scheldt and
the Thames have much in common in so far as the
conditions of sailing are concerned, and a good, strong,
weatherly type of ship is essential for either waters.
Therefore, it is not surprising that a similar rig and
the employment of those Dutch leeboards should have
been chosen. The vangs to prevent the peak from
sagging too far to leeward, and even some of those
crude but pleasing colour contrasts are also preserved.
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 288
as, for instance, where the tackle comes down from the
throat to support the sprit.
But there are certam qualities of the Thames barge
which do not belong to the Dutch prototype. The
former is more anguhtr than her chubby sister, and she
sets a small mizzen to assist her steering. And the
Thames skipper is glad to have this sprit rig, for the
reason that it gives him a clear space on his deck and
hatches when brought up. His cargo can be dis-
charged or stowed without any impediment. There is
no gaff or boom to get in the way, and he can even
rig up at the end of his peak a big pulley-wheel to
aid in hauling out the contents of his nold. She has
all her canvas tanned with the exception of her jib stay-
sail, which her skipper calls a " spinnaker." It is only
when he is in a bad sea, as we stated in an earlier
chapter, that the barge's sprit, with its heavy weight
swinging from side to side, causes the crew grave
anxiety. Otherwise for estuary work in fine weather
and river sailing there is no more suitable kind of
craft or rig. The average size of the Medway barge
is 40 tons (registered), length 78 ft., beam 17 ft.,
draught 6 ft. She is an adept at *^ ditch-crawling "
and tide-cheating, and her high topsail enables her
to catch the breeze as it filters through between the
high wharves and chimney-pots on eitiier bank; but
her fiiU sail-area is about 400 square yards. At the
back of your mind you may despise the Thames barges,
but when once you have turned to windward in their
company you begin to have a respect for them no less
than for their skippers. The Dutch fore-and-aft
sailor-men who are wont to visit the Thames have an
undisguised admiration for these our craft and seamen,
and that tribute from a nation of such thorough sea-
men is worth having. There are roughly three types
of the Thames barge, one of which is intended solely
for her work on the Thames, the Medway, and such
short trips as northwards to Yarmouth and Harwich,
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284 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
and southwards to Ramsgate and Pegwell Bay. This
is the type of barge which carries a topsail that is still
evidence of the days that are gone. It is not a jack-
yarder nor a square topsidl, but somewhere between
the two — another of the numerous British com-
promises.
The second type of Thames barge is the stumpy,
which carries no topsail, has a short pole mast, £as
no bowsprit nor jib. But the third type is a larger
development of the first, a craft that is capable of
doing quite long coasting voyages down Channel,
across to France and the Low Countries, northwuxls
to the Wash, and so on. In them the diminutive
mizzen which one sees on the vessels that come
swinging down with the tide under London Bridge
has become of considerable size, so that the rig is
practically ketch, and the mizzen is as important to
the barge as to the fishing-smack. The type of hull
in these sea-going craft is also a bolder and more
powerful type than that of the Medway class. It is
wonderful what weather they will stand — up to a
certain point. When once that point is transgressed
there is trouble. It is not so very long since two
of these bigger barges actually sailed on their own
bottoms across the Atlantic from England to South
America, but about the same time dso two others
foundered in a winter's gale off Newhaven.
We can see by comparison of the drawings of
Cooke and others how much the modern type of
Thames barge has improved during the last hundred
years. The lines of the " stumpy " of that time were
practically those of the modern dumb barge which one
sees being rowed down with the tide through the
bridges of the metropolis. The cut-away bow and
the stem with its deadwood are very similar to the
barges of to-day, except that in those days they were
of wood and not of steel. Some of the sailing barges,
according to Cooke, were cutter-rigged, with gaff and
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 285
loose-footed mainsail, staysail, and sometimes a jib set
on a bowsprit capable of being triced up, the aforesaid
bowsprit being steeved at a considerable angle as in the
old Revenue cutters. The topsail was quadrilateral,
the head being laced to a verjr short yard. They had
no mizzen whatever, and their hulls were also very
similar to those of the old stumpies. These were
known as sloop-rigged barges (Fig. 59), but nowadays
since the little mizzen is so useful in assisting the
steering, the sloop-rig is not foimd in the barge class
of vessels.
Sometimes the yawl-rigged barges of a hundred
years ago are shown with two square-sails additional
to the ordinary rig. That is to say, thejr would carry
a jib on the bowiq)rit, a staysail, a spntsail, and the
tiny mizzen; but for running free a large square-sail
with sheets as well as braces was set, and above this
also a square topsail as well as a fore-and-aft topsail
set over the spritsail and laced to the topmast. Cooke
shows (Fig. 60) just such a vessel and just such a rig
as this in Northneet Reach, the only minute difference
being that as the wind is so free the bowsprit has been
tricei up and the jib stowed, but the other sails are all
set as mentioned.
We have to pass down half the length of the
English Channel before we come to the western type
of the barge. Portsmouth has in its time seen practi-
cally every kind of vessel that has been afloat. It has
seen the Viking ships of the Norsemen as well as even
the Mediterranean galleys in the time of Henry VIII. ;
and we could go through time enumerating a plethora
of other classes which have been floating in the waters
of Spithead. But the Portsmouth type of barge such
as trades up and down Spithead, the Solent, and
Southampton Water, Chichester and Langstone and
Bembridge harbours — ^fetching gravel from the Shingles
off Hurst Point to help to buud breakwaters or the like,
and canying cargo between Portsmouth and South-
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286 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
ampton — is a somewhat inferior species of that class
which the Thames has evolved owmg to the influence
of Holland and the peculiarity of the London river
and Medway.
But there is another tjrpe of two-master which is
familiar to all who cruise along between the Isle of
Wight and the mainland. She is becoming obsolete
in these days of steam and motor cargo-carriers, but
she is not quite extinct. I refer to those tubby black-
hulled vessels to be seen in Cowes and Southampton
and other ports of this district. They are a kind of
south-country type of the billy-boy, and with their
rails running around the deck are reminiscent both
of the Humber " keels " and the Mersey lighters. In
the accompanying illustration (Fig. 61) Cooke shows
one of these Solent vessels coming out of Cowes
harbour.
The origin of the Deal lugger I am inclined to
attribute to the close proximity of this coast to
Belgium and France. More strictly speaking this
appBes to the rig rather than the hull, for the latter
is really the outcome of certain essentials demanded
by the peculiar nature of the work which they are
called upon to undertake. She must be able to sail
well and be fairly light to row. She must be suitable
for hauling up the beach, for running out to the
Goodwins in all sorts of weather, or for bringing off
pilots from outward-bound steamships. The story of
the Deal luggers would alone furnish one of the most
interesting and exciting of true romances ever written,
and it is remarkable the amount of weather these small
craft can endure. It is, indeed, owing partly to the
nature of the little ships themselves, but it is still
more due to the human element — ^the skilful handling
of an exceptionally skilful breed of seafaring men.
In olden times — ^that is to say, in the eighteenth
century — these Deal "cutters," as they were then
known, were rigged with three spritsails, the mizzen
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 287
having a bumpkin, whilst a jib was set forward. But
for the sprits, therefore, these craft were somewhat
like the small fishing-boats of the French coast, which
were afterwards to develop into the larger chasse-
mar^es. Nowadays this type has disappeared, and
the demand is for a smaller and handier type that
goes "hovelling'* anywhere between Dimgeness and
the Forelands.
Pilots tell you that it is wonderful how much sea
these craft will go through, manned by a crew of two
or perhaps three "knock-toes" (so called because of
the well-known habit of these men of standing, hands
in pockets, knocking their feet against the boat on
the shore while they yam and gaze out seawards),
but with the strong tides in the vicinity of the
GU>odwins and the ferocious seas which can get up
here in no very long space of time it may be hours
before the galley has covered the distance between
the liner and the shore, and the pilot has at last
been enabled to land. The remuneration for this
service is certainly not bad, and the occasional salvage
work which the Goodwins bring them and the atten-
tion, which weather-boimd sailing-ships brought up
in the Downs sometimes need, enable the Deal men
to keep going.
These craft are of two kinds. Firstly there is the
larger lugger with two masts and lugs, and secondly
there is the smaller galley-punt, in length somewhere
between twenty and thirty feet. The lug is very
square-headed, they seldom reef unless the weather
is exceptionally bad, and they sail remarkably close
to the wind. Long, deep, and narrow, the bigger class
is rivalled only by the shorter, heavier, and beamier
galley-punt. There is another type of galley to be
seen across the water, in Flushing, where the Dutch
and Belgian pilots are stationed and keep continual
watch from their two club-houses side by side. This
Dutch gaUey is very similar to the Deal class, and
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288 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
we shall speak of her when we come to discuss the
fore-and-aft rig abroad.
We pass on now to discuss the west country and
its characteristic fore-and-aft ships. We run across
West Bay after rounding the Bill of Portland, and
look into the little filing harboinr of Brixham, just
inside Bernr Head, and here we find none of the steam
trawlers of the North Sea ports, but an entire fleet
of sailing vessels. In the evolution of the fishing
craft and of trawling gear the port of Brixham
occupies a most important place. It has raised up
a himiy race of seamen from the time of the Tudors
and earlier to the preseiit day. And its vessels are
like its men — hardy, sturdy, strong, and made to
wrestle with the sea. I have met them out at sea,
studied them in port, watched them at their work
by night, seen them thrashing to windward down-
Channel in a hard blow, and stealthily doing a little
poaching where the high cliffs of Devon and the lack
of moon assisted them.
There are two types of the Brixham fishing craft —
one small and the other large. Of these the smaller
ones are called "mumble-bees" and are rigged as
cutters. They measure about half the size of the
other type. The larger size are ketch-rigged like
their North Sea sisters, and measure about 70 fL in
length over aU, and are of about 60 tons. Woriiied by
a crew of foiu', the ketch carries 900 sq. ft. of
sail, has a beam of 18 ft, drawing 10 ft. of water
aft and 9 ft forward. With the long, straight keel
and straight stem, these are wonderful craft for reach-
ing. The forefoot is scarcely cut away. They are
heavily and massively constructed, and so they carry
a great deal of way on them and are remarkably
powerful, sea-keeping vessels. The characteristic of
these west-coimtry trawlers is the very large staysail,
which immediately strikes the sailing-man who has
come round from the east coast Their masts rake
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Fig. 6a
Old Thames Barge with Squaresails
p. 285
Nowadays the barges of the Medway and Thames do not^ set any squaresails when running,
but one may see them sometimes bring their jib topsail (which they call a spinnaker) aft and
set it like a racing yacht's spinnaker.
-^- _^,S6^.
I?*i*. '•
«•
Fig. 6i
CowES Ketch
This shows a South Coast counterpart of the Yorkshire Billy.boy. (After E. W. Cooke.)
P. 286
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 289
forward, not aft, and they are very fond of setting
their topsails even over double-reefed mainsail, as the
men say that the topsail steadies the gaff in a seaway.
Historically it is the Brixham men who have in-
fluenced Ramsgate, and so Yarmouth and Lowestoft,
to use the ketch-rigged fishing vessels.
Although before the time of the Norman Conquest
the men of Kent were engaged in the herring-fisheries,
yet the men of Devon, especially of Brixham, Dart-
mouth, and Plymouth, have always been distinguished
sons of the sea. It has even been said that Brixham
was the first port in this country which ever developed
the fore-and-aft rig. Possibly there were here in the
sixteenth century some such craft as that shown in the
map of Master Robert Thome aUuded to and illus-
trated in one of our earlier chapters.
Torbay and the proximity of the English Channel
were more conducive to an acquisition of the arts of
sailing than the strong tidal waters of Kent dotted
with innumerable shoals and sand-banks. Con-
sequently a great school of seamen grew up in Devon-
shire, who married into each others' families and
voyaged, fought, and fished together. Nephews and
sons were taken out across the Atlantic to fish off the
Grand Banks, even in mid-Tudor times, by their
uncles and fathers. But for this keen Devonshire
race of seafanng men, trained by their life as fisher-
men, there womd have been no Drake, nor a good
many other illustrious sailors who saved England and
enabled her to retain her independence and liberty.
They are still a conservative people, and in spite of
the advantages which the motor has been aemon-
strated to possess, they have decided to have none
of it and to hold to the type of sailing fore-and-after
which has earned them their living for so long a time.
But the fishing industry is not what it used to be,
even though nowadays thev have to cruise further
ahead and go round the land beyond the Bristol
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240 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
Channel and the Welsh coast. But it will be a pity
if for any circumstance Brixham should ever lose its
fine fleet, and still more if it should cease to rear such
exceptional seafaring men.
As we proceed further westward we come to the
Plymouth hookers, where the old Dutch word is still
retained, and some slight Dutch resemblance in their
sail. That is to say these cutters, whilst they have
not the brailing arrangement of the Thames bawley,
have the boondess mainsail and the long gaff which
we spoke of above. The sheet is attached to the
clew oy means of a long hook which cannot shake out
of the sail by any amount of flapping.
Naturally, the absence of a spar along the foot of
the sail detracts from the latter when the vessel is
sailing on a wind, but any one who has had to endure
the threshing about of a boomed-sail in the Channel
will sometimes have felt inclined to envy those
Plymouth hookers. It is quite a vertical cut which is
given to the leach, so that the general impression is of
a high, narrow sail — ^the very reverse of the shape of
the modern Dutch craft with their short gafis, and the
sail broadening out the nearer it approaches the foot.
Far west though Plymouth is, yet nevertheless the
hooker has some historical connection with Holland, as
its name and sail imply. And this is all the more sur-
E rising, because the other craft of the neighbourhood,
oth m Devon and Cornwall, show no such intimate
connection with the Low Countries.
Cornwall, like Scotland, is the country of the
lugger, but there is a difference of types. The
Cornish craft is, owing to the geographical proximity
of her county, more akin to the French type of lugger
than is the North British fisherman. We spoke just
now of the Scotch zulu, which was really a com-
{>romise between the Fifie and the Buckie boats. The
atter was a flat-floored craft and sailed exceedingly
well. Her stempost raked aft a good deal. But
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a * • I
Fig. 62.
Cornish Fishing Craft
p. 241
This shows a West Country craft which has discarded her
characteristic lugs for the rig of the ketch.
Fig. 63.
Reefing Gear of Bristol Channel Pilot Craft
p. 243
The set of cogs will be seen in the foreground on the boom, and by means of worm
gear and handle the boom is revolved and the mainsail reefed.
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 241
the Comishman draws more water aft than the zulu,
and she carries a larger mizzen than her northern
sister, over which she sometimes sets a topsail. They
have easy lines, these west-country craft, and high
bulwarks, together with an exceedingly long outrigger
aft for the mizzen, and this spar comes up at an
exceptionally high angle, being steeved somewhat after
the manner of the old-fai^ioned bowsprits. These
Cornish luggers have both speed and seaworthiness,
and their mizzen-mast has more hoist than the
Scotchman. Occasionally they set a bowsprit and
jib.
There are few more beautiftd sights than to watch a
fleet of these vessels putting to sea just before sun-
set, from Mevagissey or some other Cornish port, and
though they have the drawback of their lug-rig in
having to dip the sail at each tack, yet on a wind they
have a speea that is surprisingly fast* Some idea of
their speed may be gathered from the achievement of a
trio of Penzance drifters, named respectively the Nellie
Jane, the Emblem, and the Children's JFViend. These
on one occasion a couple of years ago sailed in company
from Mount's Bay up the whole length of the English
Channcd, round past the Essex coast, up northwards as
far as Scarborough. They were becalmed at the outset
in Mount's Bay for some time, and when off the York-
shire coast in a heavy squall thejr were compelled to
lower sail altogether, but otherwise they scarcely had
need to touch tack or sheet the whole trip. But, even
including this, the lon^ run from one end of England to
the other was accompUshed under three days, the actual
time being seventy hours.
Nowadays one sometimes finds these west-coimtry
luggers have their rig altered to a ketch, and in the
accompanying illustration {Fig. 62) such a craft is seen.
But they tell you that this transiormation is not alto-
gether a success, and that these vessels which are de-
signed for a couple of lugs are better so sailed. The size
Q
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242 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
of the Penzance luggers is usually about 27 tons, with a
beam of 18| ft. and a draught of 7 ft
And now let us run round the land to Bristol
Channel, the home of some of the finest fore-and-
afters in the world, in the shape of the Bristol Channel
pilot-cutters. For three things collectively these craft
are probably unrivalled by the vessels of any country or
indeed any port. These three qualities may be sununed
up under the heads of speed, seaworthiness, and handi-
ness, and for these reasons this t3rpe of pUot-cutter
makes one of the soundest models for the modern
yachtsbian to aim at if he desires a good ship of mode-
rate dimensions. I have watched these splendid craft
being manoeuvred in a crowded harbour with the ease
almost of a small rater. And yet they are designed
so as to be able to encounter any amount of bad
weather.
The Bristol Channel itself is notorious for the alarm-
ing strength of its tide ; and with a south-west wind
against this there rises a sea that may well strike terror
into many small craft. But these yacht-like vessels
have to go out for many a mile to pick up their job,
round Land's End, perhaps half-way up the English
Channel. There may be three men on board the
cutter, perhaps only two sometimes. One of them gets
the dinghy overboard as they come abreast of the big
steel-liner, and rows off to the latter. As he climbs up
into the great steamship he kicks off the little dinghy,
the steamship's tel^aph clangs down in the engine*
room, and her engines begin to move again. Then
when she has gone, the pilot-cutter sails down, heaves-
to, and hoists the dinghy on board again. Then — all
single-handed the while — the one man sails his ship back
day and night home.
We may well admire both the craft and her crew
able to do these mancBuvres so welL But of course the
cutter is supplied with the best possible devices to in-
crease her handiness and save labour, and it is these
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 248
features which make her so extremely interesting. In
the accompanying illustrations will be found ample
opportunity of examining some of these. We shall
deal with her lines presently, but for the moment let
us just notice her reefing-gear, which is used for the
mamsalL This is the arrangement which is in general
use among the Bristol Channel pilot-cutters. As will
Fio. 65.— Bristol Chaistnel Pilot-Cutteb.
This BhowB two of the smaller type of these craft. Notice that they have
no bobstays.
be seen fix)m the accompanying photograph (Fig.
taken on one of these vessels, there is at the forward
end of the boom a set of cogs. Either below or above
these, according to choice, there is fitted into them a
worm-gear that is revolved by means of a handle which
can be unshipped when not in use. The worm works in
the cogs, and thus turns the boom round, and so causes
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244 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
the sail to roll round the boom after the maimer of the
domestic window-Uind. There is obtained a very con-
siderable power, and the action is immediate; conse-
quently the cutter can hang on to all her sail in a hard
blow, and only reef when absolutely compelled so
to da
But it is essential that the boom ^ould not project
further aft than the end of the counter, and the pilots
tell you that since this reefing-gear was introduced more
booms have been broken than formerly, for the reason
that the greatest strain occurs in the centre of this spar.
But in spite of this the arrangement is both excellent
and popular, and a great saving of time and trouble as
compared with the old-fashioned method of reefing. I
have heard so much praise from actual users — ^men who
were inclined to be prejudiced against it — ^that it is
impossible to think too hi^y of it Another excellent
practice which these men have is to place two bands
mstead of one around the mast, though the smaller
gears, which are made of gun-metal, fit into an ordinary
goose-neck and have but one mast-band.
For further facility in reefing when single-handed,
the peak-halyard leads aft ; and, as will be seen in this
photograph, the sheets of the head-sails lead in throu^^h
the coammg of the cockpit. The shape of the latter, by
the way, as here seen, is very characteristic of these
craft These cutters carry no davits, but they make
short work of getting the dinghy on board. This is
done as follows : The ke-runner is unhitched and hooked
on to lines in the dinghy, and then the crew hoist away
on the runner. The result is that the boat comes up
with her bow and stem on the same plane. She is then
stowed on deck, special chocks being laid dovm for the
reception of her keel, and in the photograph one of these
can be noticed at the bottom nght-mmd comer. The
mast is stepped nearly amidships, so that she sets a
good-sized staysail, and a smaller jib on a bowsprit of
moderate length.
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 245
As to the size of these splendid cutters, they vary
from 84 ft. length over all to 56 ft., the beam varying
from 11 ft. to 14 fL, and the draught from 7 ft. to 8 ft.
The newer types have the forefoot curved to a greater
extent than the others, which have straight bows. The
elliptical counters of the more modem class are ideal
for sea-work, and the pilots find them less likely to get
damaged against the side of the liner in those instances
when the dinghy is not launched and the cutter lands
her pilot direct But the older type have square stems.
As I write I have before me the dimensions of the pilot-
cutter Gra^cCt whose details, taken from an auctioneer's
advertisement, are thus : length over all, 50 ft. 8 in. ;
length on water-line, 48 ft. ; beam, 18 ft. 6 in. ; draught,
8 fL 6 in. Like most of this breed she has a flush deck.
Her rigging is of steel wire, and she has the patent
reefing-gear already described. She has two anchors,
about 55 fathoms of cable, punt, ** and all necessary
fittings appertaining to a pilot-cutter."
For the halyards there are purchases, and in reefing
all that one has to do is to slack off the purchase with
one hand, after having taken in the slack of the topping-
lift, and then turn the handle of the reefing-gear. And
it makes no difference whether the ship is running, or
on the wind on either tack, the reefing operation l^ing
perfectly easy and simple. So easily does the gear work
that it is no extraorainary thing for the helmsman,
while his mate is enjopng his watch below, to run
forward in bad weather and get in the bowsprit, reef
the staysail, and roll down the mainsail till it is a mere
handkerchief; and all this in the space of but a few
minutes. It is not even necessary to disturb the other
man below. The cockpits are small and watertight,
and there is a leather nap which covers the discharge
outlet of the pipe.
The motion of the ship through the water keeps this
fiiap pressed against the side of the hull, and so prevents
any water running up. From the cockpit one steps
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246 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
into a compartment where the sails and ^'oilies" are
stowed, the dimensions of this space being about 6 to
10 ft long. The saloon has either two or fom* bunks
according to size, with a coal stove in the middle, and
on some cutters there is a sleeping cabin forward of this,
with the pantry and store in the alle3rway. The cook-
ing is done in the lai^e forecastle.
It is a strenuous ufe, and there is keen competition
between these craft, but those which are fitted with
auxiliary motors have them sealed, and they are, by
mutual i^reement, not used when the different cutters
sight their liner in the distance and set all sail to be the
firat to get up to her. Nine months out of the twelve
these men are afloat, but the pay is good, for the pilot
is worthy of his hire. These vessels, in addition to
their virtues of speed, handiness, and seaworthiness,
have also the quality of being able to heave-to ^* like
ducks," as it has been said. Forward, the hulls of these
splendid cutters have fine high shoulders, and they have
a good sheer.
It is asserted that, as indicative of the excellent sea-
keeping qualities of these cutters, whilst many of them
have been run down, yet not one of them has been
known to founder owing to bad weather merelv. In
ordinary weather they carry a small jib, the roresail
being as stated a large one ; but when it comes on to
blow, the jib is stowed and the large foresail does the
work. Very interesting and thoroughly sound is the
Bristol Channel pilot's idea as to ballast. He does
not want a ship that is a brute for roUing : when he is
alongside some gigantic Uner at niffht in the swell of
the Atlantic, he does not want his brave little craft to
kick herself about more than need be. So, additional
to the ballast on the keel outside he believes very
strongly in placing inside ballast to steady her. It is
piled up almost to the water-line, and though the cutter
may pitch somewhat, yet she will be very steady with
a nice easy rolL As an instance of how steady these
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 247
craft are, one authority recently asserted that a pilot
told him that when hove-to in half a gale off Lundy,
the match-box on a polished table in the cabin had
never moved
In order to minimise the shock of a ffybe these
cutters are sometimes fitted with special buffers for
the mainsheet, and made either of rubber or of a steel
spiral spring. Althoug^h there is plenty of individuality
aoout the different pilot-cutters of this part of the
world, yet they all have a common likeness in respect
of the handiness of the rig, the ballasting, the ample
beam, and so on. So general has the patent reemig
apparatus become that about three-quarters of the fleet
now possess this device. These vessels have three
shrouds on either side, and some of them have no run-
ners. Bobstays are not universal, and one often finds
them discarded, for the jib is small and the spar may
have to be run in before long. We spoke just now of
the inside ballast, but whilst all have quantities of this,
yet there are some which have no eivtemal ballast at
alL It is rare to provide these cutters with skylights,
for some of the seas off the Longships would burst
through in a short time, so the usual practice is to insert
decklights.
The shapes of these vessels' huUs differ a good deal,
some being very fine forward and full aft, others being
very full forward and fine aft, and a few have over-
hanging bows. Some, again, have rather barrel-shaped
hulls, whilst others also have a good deal of hollow. I
once came across the Alpha^ which with a couple of
other Bristol Channel cutters put into Dartmouth.
This is admittedly one of the crack ships of the class.
Although she has a straight stem she is well cut-away
at her forefoot. She has turned out to be just what
she looks — ^a fine, able sea-boat. I am able, through
the courtesy of Mr. Harold Clayton, the well-known
Penarth designer, to include here the design and lines
of the Barry pilot-cutter Faith (Figs. 64, 66, and 67).
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY 249
It should be explained that she is not quite in
consonance with the general type of these pilot-cutters,
although possessing many of their features. Mr Clay-
ton says that she was the first of these craft ever buUt
to paper drawings only, and the one boat which has an
Fio. 67.— Sail-Plak of Bbistoi» Chahnbl Pzlot-Cuttsb "Faith."
(See Figs. 64 and 66.)
owner's cabin. Mr. Clajrton also asserts that the Faith
has proved herself to be very fast both in light weather
and m heavy, being a fine, able sea-boat in a gale of
wind. The sail-putn (Fig. 67) shows the character-
istic large staysail and the comparatively small jib.
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250 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
The mainsheet goes straight down from the boom, and
the latter is seen to be ^umb with the taffi-ail of the
comiter. The forefoot is very much more cut-away
than is usual, and it would not be every pilot that
would agree to approve of this modification. The
accommodation and the construction plans are well
worthy of study, and will explain themselves.
I feel that I scarcely need apologise to the reader
for having taken up so much of his time to consider
this west-country type of cutter, for it is a type which,
in spite of its varieties of species, is so healthy and
instructive that it is well deserving of being copied.
Those of us who have owned or cruised in yachts
modelled on the general features which are possessed
by these Bristol cutters admit that they make ideal
cruisers. But from the Bristol Channel we may now
?ass round Land's End again and run up the English
ihannel to have a look at another type of pilot craft,
very interesting but totally different from those which
we have just been considering. I wish to call attention
to the auxiliary motor pilot-ketches Solent and the
St. Helen's, which may have been noticed by those
whose cruising ground usually includes the neighbour-
hood of the Isle of Wight.
These vessels are only about eighteen months old,
and were built at Leith to the order of the Trinity
House for use in the English Channel. The first
remark that rises to one's lips on seeing them is that
they are fine, weatherly craft, and able to endure as
much wind and sea as even the Channel in its worst
mood may feel inclined to put up. They stand as the
most modem type of sea-keeping craft, built not for
speed but for weatherliness. Constructed of steel,
and considerably in excess of Lloyd's yacht rules,
100 Al class, imder the society's special survey, they
have a lengtii of 68 ft. over all, 59 ft. on the load
water-line, 18 ft. beam, and 11^ ft. moulded depth.
Rigged as ketches they carry a good stretch of canvas.
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 251
with jib and foresail for headsails, and a short bowsprit.
The stem is straight, but the forefoot is moderately
cut-away immediately below where the bobstay shackle
is affixed.
The accommodation below is very roomy and com-
fortable. There is a large forecastle for a crew of four,
fitted with table, lockers, and bunks, aft of which is a
pantry on one side and a lavatory on the other. Aft
a^ain of this are the pilot's quarters, and there is a
division by means of a watertight bulkhead. This
large saloon is well-lighted, the bunks being, of course,
on either side, the rest of the contents consisting of
table, sofas, stove, and bookcase. Entrance is given
to this saloon by means of a teak ladder, whilst on
deck the amount of room is very great. Abaft of the
saloon comes the engine-room, being divided off by
means of a steel bulkhead from the living accommoda-
tion. The engine has two cylinders with reverse gear,
and is started by means of compressed air, and this
latter is also used for blowing the ship's siren.
Paraffin is used for fuel, and under power alone these
pilot-ketches have obtained a speed of seven knots.
The machinery is controlled from the engine-room,
and thus a telegraph communicates from the steering-
wheel aft. Such a type as this would afford an excel-
lent model for any one desiring a ketch-rigged yacht
that would face any weather that one would have the
heart to let her look at. These craft have a nice sheer,
and the high bows and their plentiful freeboard
generally enable them to be dry ships in a seaway.
They cruise about under canvas alone, but when they
espy their steamship in the distance they lower away
and run up under motor-power. With the right kind
of amateur crew and given fair average weather it
would be difficult to conceive of anything more
delightful than an extended cruise in southern seas
with such a ship under one as this.
And whilst we are speaking of motors as applied
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252 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
to fore-and-afters, we might mention that this new
development has been t£e means of enlarj^g the
earning power of the ships which have received this
installation. We could «ve a number of instances,
but we may content oursdves with remaining first the
case of a comparatively small vessel, and secondly one
of much greater tonnage. The former refers to the
Gladys^ a sailing barge. During the construction of
the great lock at Portsmouth dockyard tons of shingle
were required that had to be brought from Langstone
harbour just to the eastward. This transportation
was carried on by means of barges remunerated at so
much per load. Although the actual distance is quite
smaU, as the crow flies, yet the strong tides had to be
studied and worked.
In the case of li^ht airs it was not easy for the
barge to make one tnp every day. But in the Gladys
there was installed a 5-horse-power engine which
enabled her to perform not one daily trip but three,
regardless of almost all conditions. That meant that
her earning power was trebled, although the initial cost
of the engine was moderate and the upkeep infinitesimal
Perhaps the time may come when the London river
will see the Medway barges coming up over the tide
with the motor plugging them along. It is not alto-
gether improbable; but what a contrast between the
things of to-day and the old Dutch influence of
yesterday 1
The second instance has reference to the three-
masted twin-screw auxiliary schooner Saevareid. She
is a vessel of 112 ft. long, 25 ft. beam, and 11 ft
depth. She is owned in Norway, but was built in
Denmark. Her engine is of 80 horse-power, and is
instaUed right aft immediately below the officers'
cabin, the tonnage of the ship working out at about
800 tons. She was built for trading between the
United Kingdom and Norway. With her sail-power
she is able and efficient, but with her twin-screws she is
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Fig. 68.
"Britannia"
p. 253
This royal fore-and-after, designed by G. L. Watson for His late Majesty King
Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, is {>erhaps the finest racing cutter which was
ever built. The illustration was taken in the Medina when she was being fitted
out at Cowes for her second season.
Fig. 69.
"Maud"
p. 2M
This ketch-rigged yacht is one of the best known examples of the attempts to
obtain the ideal cruiser.
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 258
both economical and has greater efficiency. In addition
to her main engines she has a useful little 4 horse-
power motor for driving the anchor windlass, cargo
winches, and bilge pumps.
Although we are not writing a history of motor I
craft, yet I have deemed it worth while to quote these
instances as being typical of the way in which the!
motor is affecting the fore-and-aft sailing-ship. Where
regular rather Uian great speed is required, where
economy with greater eflBciency and independence are
desired, the combination of motor and sail power brings
about an ideal state of things. There is no such neces-
sity as having to keep steam up and bank fires. Waste
is altogether eliminated because the motor is only
employed when actually required. It is thus that the
motor and the sails are in the position of mutual friends,
and instead of the former's advent altogether driving
the latter out of existence, it has caused the sailing-ship
to take a new lease of life, to the satisfaction of aS who
retain any afiection or sentiment for one of the oldest
institutions of the world.
And now that we have seen something of the
modem development of the fore-and-afters engaged in
fishing, trading, and pilotage, let us go back and take
up the threads where we left them in the last chapter.
We can proceed to observe the lines on which the fore-
and-aft yachts have developed during the last twenty
years, a period that has proauced some most interesting
pleasure vessels, not merely for racing but for cruising,
not exclusively for the wealthy sportsman but for the
man of moderate means.
The most notable racing vessel of the last fifty years,
and perhaps the finest all-round cutter that was ever
launched, is the Britannia^ which was built for the
Prince of Wales, his late Majesty King Edward VII.
(see Fiff. 68). She was oae of those wonderful racing
craft which flourished so exceedingly during tiie 'nineties,
and included in their list such famous vessels as the
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254 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
Valkyrie /., the Satanita, the American Herreshoflf-
designed Navahoe^ the American Vigilant^ and many
another. But even in such distinguished company the
Britannia was herself distinguish^ She showed her-
self not only to be beautiful to the eye, but a consistent
and reliable craft, with considerable speed possibilities.
Handled to perfection as she was by the late Captain
Carter, brilliantly as she fought her way in some really
strenuous contests both at home and abroad, she is
to-day perfectly strong and imstrained. Unlike the
52-footers and many oUier racing yachts which exhibit
to-day the undoubted signs of serious strains, the
Britannia still remains a good sound ship. Designed
by the late Mr. 6. L. Watson and built by Hendersons,
she was from the first a vessel of distinction.
Her first appearance was made in 1898, and she
stood for the finest combination of British skill in
design and construction as to hull, and equally so in
regard to the cut of her sails. Her dimensions are :
length over all, 121 '5 ft ; length on water-line, 87'8 ft. ;
beam, 28*66 ft.; depth, 15 ft. According to the
rating of the Yacht Racing Association, she worked
out at 151*18 tons. Her sail-area was no less than
10,828 square feet. She did so well in the waters of
the United Eongdom and the Mediterranean that every
one must regret she had no opportunity of crossing the
Atlantic and trying her powers against some of the
America Cup defenders. However, in Eni?land she
beat the American Navahoe thrice out of five starts,
and the Vigilant twelve times out of eighteen starts, and
it must be remembered that the Vigilant had beaten
Valkyrie in American waters for the America Cup.
But the Britannia was not built to any classification
rule. She represented Watson's idea for an ideal racing-
cutter of great size. Most readers will remember to
have seen her in her prime, and to have noted the
singular beauty of her Imes. The amount of overhang
at bow and stern is tremendous : well over thirty odd
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 255
feet, or as long as many a smaller yacht measures over
all.
As one looks at her one sees summed up all the
lessons of the past and the present. In essentials there
is the teachmg which Holland gave forth as to the
wisdom of the cutter (or, as they would have termed it,
the sloepe) riff. But additional to that must be recog-
nised in her idl the experiences of nearly two and a hiQf
centuries, all the increased science of the designer on
the one hand and the better workmanship of the builder
on the other.
In actual length the Britannia is about double that
of the second Mary of our frontispiece, though the
Britannia^ without being any the less worthy a sea-
craft, is only an odd couple of feet beamier than the
seventeenth-centurv English-built yacht. But the
modem vessel will be noticed to be nearly twice as
deep as Charles the Second's pleasure-craft. And as
to tne comparative merits of speed, it would be almost
ridiculous to question. For Britannia^ whilst sacrificing
nothing that would make her a better sea-boat, has
eliminated everything, both in design and construction,
that would in any way detract from her being a grey-
hound of the sea.
It was the influence of such handsome craft as the
Queen Mah^ forty-rater, that is to be recognised in the
evolution of the Britannia^ the Valkyrie IL^ Satanita^
and so on. The latter was also launched in the year
1898. She had rather more on the water-line than
Britannia by about ten feet, and her beam was about
another foot greater than in the case of the royal yacht.
Nevertheless the Satanita's sail-area was slightly less.
The exact dimensions of this vessel were : sail-area,
9928 sq. ft ; length on water-line, 97'7 ft. ; extreme
beam, 247 ft.; draught, 16*5 ft. These modem
craft of the 'nineties had discarded the fiddle or
clipper stem which had been so popular about the
year 1887 » and instead there had come into being the
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256 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
spoon-like, overiiangiiig bow as shown in such yachts
as Britannia and Satanita. This newer type was also
given a deeper keel which was destined practically to
become a fin.
Instead of the old idea of havin^^ a vessel that
hammered and plunged the waves, mstead of even
** clipping" or cleaving them, the newest type of all
skimmed over the sea and IcSt it as clean as possible
with the smallest amount of fiiss and fricticm* Thanks
to the fact that yacht designing and building had
become an exact science, the racing yacht was a model
of seaworthiness, of speed, of wea&erliness and handi-
ness, having regard always to the great size. Britannia
has spent some years in retirement, though during
this presoit year (1911) she was fitted out again not
as a racer but as a cruiser on which the sons of King
George might be able to acquire a knowledge of practiciu
fore-and-aft seamanship. For greater safety her eight-
inch bulwaiks were raised very considerably, and her
old racing spars were also replaced by some of more
moderate dimensions. Possibly we shall never see the
Britannia race again, but she has done magnificently,
and between the time when she first hoisted her racing
flag up to the end of the seascm of 1807 she had won
122 nrsts out of 219 starts, and prizes amounting to
just under £10,000. Her fame will go down to
posterity along with the two Marys^ the Alarm, and
other fine ships of the fore-and-aft rig.
The spoon-shaped bow had now become a definite
fashion for racing craft, and as it was in the bigger
yachts so it was in the small fry: the strught stem
and the later fiddle-bow had gone. Every one remem-
bers that the t3rpe of the smaU racing yacht now became
a slim-huUed vessel with a fin that ended in a cigar-
shaped keel, the latter being of lead. To a certain
extent this example was foUowed in fast cruisers. But
one great disadvantage resulting from this method of
balliiiting a craft is tmtt in a seaway she has the motion
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 257
of a pendulum with the weight at the very lowest
possible point. Many modem cruisers therefore nowa-
days prefer to effect a compromise by having part of
the weight outside with part internal ballast, so as to
produce a steadier and less lively craft.
But in the small classes of racing craft the era
became known as that of the ** skimming dishes/' as
they were nicknamed. It was the exact reaction from
the time when vessels of great displacement were driven
through instead of over the water. To thwart this
tendency of building mere racing machines the Yacht
Racing Association introduced a new rule at the be-
ginning of 1896, and this was supplemented five years
btter. But the tendency to exaggerate the overhanging
bow still continued. In small craft this was not of
great concern, but in the case of the big classes the
reader can readily imagine that this continual pounding
of the "spoon" against even a moderate sea when
turning to windward in a breeze caused severe strains
to the ship.
But in the year 1908 an entirely new dep«i:ure was
made in the history of yachting, for in that year came
into force an international rule for the measurement
and rating of racing craft. This was agreed to by all
the nations of Europe, but not by the United States of
America. The object which measurement rules have
had in view has been — according to the existing know-
ledge of the time — ^the evolution of an ideal craft.
Previous years had seen various extremes at different
dates. There had been the revulsion from big dis-
Placement craft towards the plank-on-edge. There
ad been the exaggerated fin-and-bulb type and the
excessive overhangs. But now there was to be the
death-knell of the racing machine, for it was resolved
that she should aim at being both a ship as well as a
racer. She was to make a good cruiser on which her
owner, his friends, and crew could live in comfort, but
she was also to be strong and fast. Whether this inter-
R
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258 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
naticmal ideal has been attained by the yachts which
have been built under this rule is a matter of dispute.
Inasmuch as a comjnomise can never be altogether
satisfactory, so it is natural that this case should
present difficulties.
But it may be said that the object aimed at — ^the
creating of a ship rather than a racing machine
built merely as a "pothunter" — was in itself sound
enough. By this rule the light scantling was
abolished, and all yachts had to be built under
survey, the authority for our own country being
Lloyd's, that for Germany being the Grcrmanischere
Lloyd, that for France the Bureau Veritas. But
prior to this there had been evolved in such craft as
the first WTdte Heather, built by Fife in 1904, and
in the Nytia, built by Camper & Nicholson in 1906,
a type of cruiser-racer whicn became the forerunner
of the new order of things. To-day Shamrock IV.,
White Heather II. , and many other fine craft show
the outcome of the international rule. These latter
belong to the 28-metre class, and their duels have
produced some of the best competitions in the annals
of yacht racing. But the present year has seen the
introduction of the 19-metre class, in addition to
which there are the smaller tjrpes of vessels included
under the 15-metres, 6-metres, and so on.
It is only but characteristic of Britain that althou^
she was not the first to introduce either the fore-and-
aft rig or its later development the yacht, yet she
has certainly done more for the sport than any
other country. The influence of our nationality on
Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, and even Holland
is undeniable. The well-known admiration of the
Grerman Emperor for the achievements of our country-
men on the sea, whether of the navy, the mercantUe
marine, or the yachting organisations, has expressed
itself in no form more striding than in the impetus
which has been given to German water-sport. It
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 259
was in the 'eighties that this British influence was
first deeply feh, and Kiel has much for which to
thank our country. Later on the Germans also
began to assimilate ideas learned from the United
States, but none the less the British influence was
not by any means dead.
Nowadays the Germans are able to design, build,
and race their own yachts without British aid, though
it was not always thus. They have recently shown
themselves able to produce well-cut sails for their
racing craft. The sensation which the German
schooner Germania made in the summer of 1908,
when she broke the record for the Queen's course
in the waters of the Isle of Wight, has not been
forgotten, her average speed for the whole course
being over thirteen knots. Had it not been, we
may {>ertinently suggest, for such designers as Fife
in Britain, Herreshofi^ in America, for such sail-
makers as Ratsey and Lapthome of Britain, and for
what had been learned from German-employed British
racing crews, it is pretty certain that German yachting
would not have advanced either so rapidly or with
such signal success.
We spoke some time back of the influence in
America of the pilot and fishing schooners, and went
on to show how this rig was adopted for the famous
yacht America. The American vachtsmen have shown
themselves much attached to tne schooner-rig and to
the centre-board sloop, or cutter as we should call her
in this country. (The word sloop has been retained
in the former country, owing its ancestry straight
back to the time of the Dutdi colonists, whereas in
England the influence of the Revenue-cutters on yacht-
ing caused the retention of the word cutter instead of
sloop.) We might date American yachting from the
time when the Uttle Dutch sloops were wont to sail
about the harbour of New Amsterdam, but as an
organised sport it is not as old as in our own
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260 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
country. It is only from the year 1844 that the
New York Yacht Club dates, but it is really after
the year 1851 that American yachting began in any
way to flourish. The line of separation between the
past and the present is formed by the famous America.
JSecause she had done so wonderfully in English waters,
and because she was also a schooner, so the Americans
from the early 'fifties began both to enthuse over yachts
as a whole and over schooners in particular. It was but
natural, also, that the American pilot and fishing craft
should continue to be the models for the new enthusiasts.
But because of the nature of the eastern coast of
the United States, our cousins have shown a great
liking for the centre-board even in the biggest yachts,
schooners no less than in sloops. This is the exact
opposite of British ideas* About the time when the
plank-on-edge craze was at its summit in England
the Americans chose a beamier type of craft, and
because they wanted a shallow-draught boat they
employed the centre-board in contradistinction to
our narrow, deep-keeled craft of that time; but
during the 'eighties they began to modify the lines
of their' yachts so that they actually approximated
more to the contemporary British yachts.
The efibrts to win back the America Cup have
also acted as a great inducement to American yachting,
and one has only to name such famous craft as the
Defender and Columbia and Vigilant of the 'nineties,
and the Constitution and Retiance of the present
century, to call to mind the finest racing sloops of
the United States. But the excessive amount of sail-
area and the exceedingly light scantlings which these
American racing craft possess make them indeed
marvellous racing machines for their own waters in
fine, fair weather, though strictly speaking they are
not sea yachts. As an instance of the degree to
which an idea may be pushed, let us call attention
to the accompanying illustration of the Outlook in
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 261
Fig. 71. This shows a model of a very much smaller
craft— a mere small-rater in fact — but it well illustrates
the tendency towards the attainment of a fast boat
in light weather. The Outlook is not a ship in any
sense of the word ; she is a very clever and ingenious
racing machine for skimming along the water, with
the minimum of displacement and a deep rudder and
centre-board. She nas neither strength nor beauty,
and speed is her only justification for existence.
Among the small craft the Americans have shown
themselves also fond of the cat-boat type of craft
In the sketch (Fig. 78) this type of boat is here
represented. Such a specimen would measure about
26 ft. over all, 10 ft. beam, and with 8 ft
draught. In this cat-boat type we have a clear
descendant of the Dutch influence, with no jib, but
the mast stepped right in the eyes of the boat. In
England we can see her counterpart in the Una-rigged
crw;, but historically she is related to the Norfolk
wherry (by reason of her connection with Holland),
and she must also justly lay claim to being related to
that type of vessel, with one sail and mast but no
headsjol, that we saw in existence in the sixteenth
century. To-day, as we shall see in the following
chapter, the inland waters of Holland still preserve
the Dutch equivalent, or rather prototype, of this
cat-boat craft. Because of their well-known bad
proclivities when running before a moderate breeze
this rig is not popular in England ; and even when it
is proposed to give a small open boat a simple rig, the
balance lugsail is infinitely preferred in our country.
It should be added that even in America, where the
cat-boat prospers most, there is a decided tendency to
modify it by the addition of a jib and bowsprit, so as
to make her a sloop. But for all that the mast
remains in the same position as before — just as far
forward as it is possible to have it placed. For land-
locked waters these craft have certain advantages, but
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Fio. 78.— Amuuoah Oat-Boat.
if stepped verj far forward ma in the Datoh-Ameriomn iloope
of the ■erenteenth oentory.
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THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY 268
there are not many who would call the rig suitable for
actual sea- work.
Recently in England the 15-metre cutters have
practically superseded the 52-footers, except in handi-
cap racing ; but in America a somewhat similar class
to these, though larger, was found in the 70-footers, '
which have been the most popular large yachts, within
recent times, of the New York Yacht Club. In
America the same difficulty which has confronted
ourselves in regard to finding a suitable rule for the
measurement and rating of yachts has also existed.
The problem has been, as with us, to find some satis-
factory method for the prevention of an exaggerated,
unhealthy type. It is a matter for regret that
America did not see her way to joining the other
yachting nations in agreeing to the mtemational
rule, but last year (1910) Herreshoff, the greatest
naval architect across the Atlantic, designed the
schooner Westward specially to compete with the
yachts built under the international rules, and she
sailed on her own bottom across to the Solent last
summer. She raced with consummate success, and
showed herself to be the finest schooner ever built.
The accompanying sketch (Fig. 74) shows her with
topsails, all lower canvas, and spinnaker set, as she
was seen cruising one day last July in the Solent.
Westward is practically the modem America in
regard to the sensational success which she won for
herself at Cowes in 1910. She was designed and
built for the one purpose of sailing as fast as the
wind would send her. To that end eveirthing else,
so far as possible, was sacrificed, but on the Atlantic
she showed herself to be a good sea-boat. She was
spoken of as a racing machine, but it is hardly fair
so to speak of a vessel with such sea-keeping qualities.
In the great race on August 1, 1910, with the German
schooner Germania as scratch boat, and the German
Emperor's schooner Meteor also scratch, the Westward
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264 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
won handsomely, the British cutter Shamrock IV.
being second, followed by the Germavia and Meteor
in the order named.
But not all the representatives of the fore-and-
aft rig either in Great Britain or America are traders,
fisher-craft, pilots, or racing yachts. There is that
Fig. 74.-- " Wbstwabd."
ThiB American sohooner was the sensation of the yacht-raoing season of 1910,
when, like her predecessor the famous America^ she showed herself to be the
finest sohooner afloat.
not inconsiderable class to be reckoned which in-
cludes the cruisers, and about these we propose now
to say something. It is undeniable that for a time
the cruiser, after she had been for so long a period
designed on the lines of the king's cutters, was in-
fluenced by the racing yacht. To an extent this is
so to-day; but there is not that wild fanaticism
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 265
which fails to draw a separating line between the
requirements of the one and the other. Speed is
absolutely the first essential in the racing yacht; in
the cruiser it is merely highly desirable.
The first virtues which the cruiser should possess
are comfort, the ability to keep the sea in most
weathers, handiness for entering harbours or navigat-
ing narrow channels, simplicity of gear, requiring the
fewest possible hands to work her; and then, when
these qualities have been obtained, the best turn of
speed that her designer and builder can endow her
with. She is intended to win for her owner not
fame but pleasure — the two things are not necessarily
the same — and she is to be a ship before she is a
greyhound. To this end the owner may choose a
vessel of any rig or any tonnage. With those few
but fine ship- or barque-rigged craft such as one meets
with , occasionally in different ports and in different
seas we have no need here to speak. Of the medium-
sized cruisers, the topsail schooner was at one time a
favourite rig, though the fore-and-aft schooner and
the yawl are now more common. For some un-
explained reason the ketch-ri^, notwithstanding that
it was found serviceable by uie fisherman, was until
fairly recently not adopted by the yachtsman, though
it is in many ways suitable for vessels of anything
above eleven or twelve tons ; and by splitting up the
canvas into such dimensions as enable it to be handled
easily it has much to commend itself. Otherwise,
with the exception of a few vessels, the yawl and
cutter rigs have been chiefly employed for cruisers.
But as democracy has gradually superseded aris-
tocracy, as wealth has spread from the few to the
many; so when the sport of yachting became, com-
paratively speaking, universal, it followed that there
was the man of moderate means to be catered for
quite as much as the man who could afford to com-
mission his fine big schooner, or yawl, or cutter year
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266 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
by year. But there was this difference: the former
wished to dispense with the paid hand altogether, or
at any rate as far as possible. This not only allowed
of greater improvement as to internal accommodation,
inasmuch as it left the crew's quarters available, but
it gave room for such devices as would minimise labour
in different wajrs. And to-day, if we omit from our
purview the big, crack racing yachts, it is the keen
amateur who, either alone or in company with a few
kindred spirits, makes up the largest proportion of
membership in the many yacht and sailing clubs that
exist in all parts of the globe where the fore-and-aft
yacht is in vogue.
For a time the old ideals were followed, the ideals
which belonged rather to the bigger craft with ample
paid assistance. But comparative^ recently the mode-
rate-sized yacht has been given the attention which
she deserves. It is because many an owner has found
to his cost that whilst sometimes a paid hand is more
than worthy of his hire, yet there is so much tmcer-
tainty about him as a class, there are so many unsatis-
factory members of his vocation, that it were best to
try and do without him. Added to which there would
also thereby be a considerable saving in wages, and
the much-increased joy of being independent of all
professional help.
Vessels of 18 or 20 tons are now designed and built
and rigged with so much skill that they can be taken
anvwhere along the coast without a professional crew.
Of these perhaps the most famous i$ the ketch-rigged
Maudj a photograph of which is seen in Fig. 69, wmch
I mention especiidlv owing to the fact that she has
already shown herself to be an influence on the develop-
ment of the Corinthian cruiser. By common consent
there are summed up in her many of the virtues which
the largest class of yachtsmen believe to be essential
for a cruiser. She is not a species of a type, but has
an originality which demands criticism at once. There
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t ••• • • ••• • • • ••••"•
Fig:. 7S
Sailing Lifeboat
p. 268
The modern so-called "canoe-stern " which forms part of the design ot some cruisers is
nowhere better exhibited than in the Scotch fishing craft, the Norwegian fore-and- afters,
and the lifeboat.
Fig. 76. . p. 21X)
Norwegian Pilot Cutter
Notice the large staysail. These craft measure about 38 ft. to 40 ft. in length over all.
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•, • • • / • •• • •
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 267
is nothing of the old-fashioned, unhandy, heavily-rigged
cruiser in her character, but ever3rthing has been thought
out to the smallest details. And therefore, though she
wUl be familiar to many readers of these pages, one
may legitimately call attention to her now.
Originally intended for a long ocean cruise, she was
made of great strength. She was designed and built
by Fife of Fairlie in 1899, and has a Thames tonnage
of 21, her length over all being 41 ft. 9 in., her draught
6 ft. 8 in. After being purebred by Mr. Claud Worth
and Mr. C. D. Mar^all (of whom the latter is still
part owner), she was considerably improved as to her
equipment, and in spite of her size is acknowledged to
be one of the handiest craft afloat. Those who have
sailed in her say that Maud is a splendid sea-boat,*
and the fact that she has been handlea on any ordinary
cruise by the owner and his wife must be taken as
sufficient proof of her virtues as a convenient craft.
Built with oak frames and pitch-pine planking, with
seven tons of ballast on her Keel and a couple of tons
of lead inside, she has a canoe stem, a moderately cut-
away bow, and a bold sheer with fine high shoulders.
The mainboom is fitted with a reefing-gear, and the
jib has the Wykeham-Martin furling gear.
For running before the wind a square-sail is used
as a better cruising sail than the spinnaker, the yard
being hoisted by the fore-halyards. A shackle is made
fast to the yard at the' slings, and travels up and down
the jackstay, the fall of the halyard being oent to the
yard as a down-hauL Of course no one can expect
a ketch to go to windward as well as a cutter, but
since Matuinas had her gaff shortened she has been
considerably improved, and she is certainly fast on all
points of sailing. A little time since she was fitted
with a small auxiliary motor, which has been found to
add to her already considerable efficiency. The very
many interesting details that compose her personality,
with the numerous ingenious devices, space will not allow
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268 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
of being discussed here, but those who are interested
may be referred to an entertaining and full description
of this vessel given by her late owner, Mr. Claud
Worth, in the Yachting Monthly for April of 1908, to
which issue, as well as to Mr. C. D. Marshall, 1 am
myself indebted for certain information here gathered.
The Maud has cruised all round England from the
south coast, east about and back again, and is still
one of the most admirable cruisers on the south coast.
For here is a yacht that has a good turn of speed,
as well as sea-keeping qualities ; that can be managed
without paid assistance, that is handy as well as com-
fortable, nabitable as well as handsome. These are
among the most notable qualifications which the ideal
cruiser of modem dimensions demand, and accordingly
Maud is Ukely to be an influence for some time to
come. There are those who object to the canoe stem,
either because it is unsightly or that it leaves very
little deck-room right aft. The latter may be a draw-
back, but the former criticism is rather a matter of
personal taste. At any rate, this form of stem makes
an ideal one for bad weather in a following sea, and
the fact that it is the same principle which is to be
seen in the old Viking ships, the whalers, and the
modern Scotch fishing craft must instantly commend
itself as having very considerable merits. It is the same
principle, is it not, which is always seen in the life-
boat, as the accompanying illustration (Fig. 75) shows ;
and it is more natural that a vessel should be so-called
'' double-ended," and thereby better balanced as to its
ends, than that it should be given a long, overhanging
counter, or the ugly transom stern of the Itchen Ferry
type of craft.
From the 21 -ton ketch-rigged Maud we pass on to
consider the designs of the 10-ton yawl ifea/(Figs. 70,
72, 77), which, through the courtesy of their creator,
Mr. Albert Strange, are here reproduced. I have
included the Seal for several reasons. In a recent de-
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270 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
signing competition she won for herself a great deal of
praise both because of her originality and the features
which she exhibits as the outcome of actual sea-experi-
ence. Whilst many a man may feel inclined to hesitate
before he would tackle a vessel of the size of Maiui, yet
in the Seed there is attempted a somewhat similar t3rpe
of craft, but of inferior tonnage. In many ways the
Seal is the ideal cruiser to a man of moderate means
seeking a vessel that will give him a comfortable home
as long as he is afloat, but possessing those necessary
qualities of good speed and ability to endure weather up
to a summer ffale. Such a craft as this would be able
to be independent of the shore for a week, would be able
to go through a fair amount of dirty weather, and would
be dry in a seaway, plucky and strong. And yet she is
pleasinff to the eye, easy to handle, and without com-
plicated devices. As she is intended to be sailed without
paid hands, the forecastle gives an additional cabin.
The Seal measures in length over all 87 ft. 7 in.,
extreme beam 9 ft, draught 6 ft., length on water-line
80 ft. 7 in., so that her overhang is exactly 7 ft At
the bow she has 4 ft. 10 in. of freeboard, and at the stem
8 ft. 8J in., her displacement beinfir 11-68 tons. It will
be noticed that on her keel she has over four tons of
lead, and her sail-area is 740 sq. ft. ; that is to say, with
^ib, foresail, mainsail, topsail, and mizzen set Accord-
ing to the specification of her designer, this little vessel
would be built with timbers of English oak imd floors
of galvanised wrought-iron, the fastenings to be of muntz
metal and copper. The plankidg would vary in thick-
ness from If to 1^ inches. A winch with brake is to be
placed forward for the anchor- work, and both the main-
and fore-sheet are to work on g^vanised-iron horses.
In the after-cabin will be seen a slow-combustion
stove, and this connects with the flue which comes from
the galley-stove, the latter having also an oven. The
cockpit IS lined with lead and made watertight, with
a couple of pipes placed aft for discharging into the sea.
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Fig. 78.
Sail Plan of "Sheila IL"
This is an 8-tonner, measuring 31 ft. 7 in. in length over all.
P. 271
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IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA 271
All the rigging is to be of wire, the running-gear to
be of best manila. The internal accommodation plan
shows how much comfort can be easily worked into
even a ten-tonner. Immediately below the cockpit
there is a nice space for storage-room, forward of which
is the steerage, with a patent w.c, folding washstand,
and cupboard for oilskins and sea-boots. The side- and
anchor-lights are handily placed on a shelf in the steer-
a^ ready for immediate use. The saloon is fitted up
with berths, which can be lowered at night-time ana
folded back out of sight during the day. Ample care
has been bestowed on such conveniences as net-racks,
wardrobe, cupboards, and lockers.
In the forecastle the sides are lined with pitch-pine
and varnished, the locker-doors and cupboard-doors
being of the same material. By an ingemous arrange-
ment the nuisance of the dinghy is overcome. Every
one knows how very tiresome she can make herself when
being towed, and how awkward she is to stow on deck.
But in the accompan3ring illustrations it will be seen
that the suggestion is made for her central thwart to be
unshipped, so that she can, after beine capsized, rest
comfortably over the skylight. True, this would make
the cabin dark during the voyage, but that is inevit-
able and could be endured, especially as one is mostly
on deck during daylight, and when it is night the
presence of the dinghy on the top would not matter
during a passage. In harbour, of course, it would be
usually afloat. As the dinghy is meant to sail, and
the movable central thwart prevents the use of a
c^itre-board, leeboards, after the Dutch fashion, are
provided.
The Seal has so much by which to commend her to
all who are interested in the evolution of the small,
handy, comfortable cruiser that she is well deserving of
careful consideration. But a slightly smaller craft, also
yawl-riffged, and in many wajrs resembling the Seal, is
to be round in the Shdla IL, whose lines are here
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272 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
reproduced (Figs. 78, 79, 80). This is an eiffht-tonner,
and measures 81 ft. 7 in. in length over all, 24 ft. on
the water-line, beam 8 ft. 6 in., draught 4 ft. 11 in.,
sail-area 545 sq. ft. At the moment of writing this
craft is being constructed, and she promises to be a
very sturdy little yawL She is a veritable single-
hander, with single headsail, a moderate sail-area, and
well split-up. Sne has plenty of accommodation, good
forecastle, and a number of interesting and ingenious
devices for making the best of every inch of room. She
has 5 ft. 7^ in. of head-room under the beams, so that
for an eight-tonner she is by no means ill-provided in
this respect. The bowsprit, as is the modem custom in
contradistinction to the ideas of the early nineteenth
century, is quite short.
In a hard blow, when the storm-jib will be set, the
tack of the latter will be made fast by means of a
shackle to the stem-head so that the whole of this sail
would be inboard. Her internal acconunodation is
especially interesting and comfortable for a vessel of
this tonnage. In uie steerage, after descending the
companion, there is on the port hand a convenient
place for cooking, so that the single-hander can keep
an eye on this domestic department whilst he is still
at the helm. Furthermore, this steerage is a convenient
Slace for taking off one's oilies and leaving behind any
ampness that mi^ht otherwise come into the cabin.
On the starboard nand are seats and lockers, with a
place for the lamps above. Undoubtedly this is the
right part of the ship for these details. There are times
when m a seaway, and the little craft is endeavouring
to stand first on her head and then on her tail, it is
trying even to the most hardened to have to go forward
either to attend to the stove or to get out the side-lights.
Many a professional seaman succumbs under these cir-
cumstances. But with such an arrangement as is here
shown, everjrthiM is at hand and where it is most likely
to be wanted. The ftesh-water tank is placed immedi-
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274 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
ately below, and the water is raised by a semi-rotary
pump to the part of the steerage where it is required.
In the cabin a couple of lockers have been cleverly
worked into the plan for the purpose of keeping the
blankets quite dry and out of the way. A sliding door
gives access to the forecastle, which is fitted with a
folding cot. The other details are so well shown in the
accompan3ring plans that they need not be explained
further.
Smaller still comes the Cherub III. (Figs. 81, 82,
and 87), designed also by Mr. Strange and for his own
use. She is a six-tonner with a displacement of 4*6
tons, measuring 28 ft 6 in. over all, 22*95 on the water-
line, and draws 8 ft. 10 in. of water. Her owner
describes her as very able, a splendid sea-boat, and very
comfortable. Again we have the yawl rig and again
the single headsail. With her 8 ft. beam, her sail-
area of 488 sq. ft., her excellent accommodation below
with plenty of locker space and room for stowage of
ropes, &c., and with many of the features on a smaller
scale which the Sheila II. possesses, this craft will
appeal to the amateur sailor who does his cruising in
snudl craft.
In the Norma (Figs. 88, 84, and 85) we have the
canoe-yacht t3rpe of vessel worked out to give a dis-
placement of 8*85 tons on a length over all of 25*4 ft,
with 20 ft on the water-line, and a beam of 7 ft. 2 in.,
the draught being 8 ft. 4 in., and the sail-area 865
sq. ft Extreme convenience in getting up sails is made
possible with this split-up sail-plan, though for so small
a craft many people would prefer the cutter riff. She
has a good amount of freeboard at the bows and a nice
sheer, whilst below, as will be readily seen, her accom-
modation is compact and well thought out
And so we might go on to add other instances, and
show how the fore-and-aft rig has adapted itself even
to the smallest possible raters, to the dinghies, to canoes,
and even to the model yachts. But we have already
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276 THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG TO-DAY
shown in what manner and under what influences the
various main developments of the rig have taken place
within our own times by the Anglo-Saxon people. It
has been, and still continues to be, a blessing and a
boon to sailor-men, whether professional or amateur,
and with the addition of the motor within the last few
years it has shown itself far too valuable to be discarded
for man^ long years to come. It has been the means
of keeping aBve that spirit which is one of the most
valuable possessions of our race, the love of the sea ;
for the square rig means a large craft, and that means
increased expense and fewer numbers.
But the fore-and-aft rig, because it is applicable
even to the smallest craft, is at once a training institu-
tion for the learner and an economical teacher. What-
ever changes our shipping and craft may in the years
to come be destined to suffer, at least it is to be desired
that so wholesome a lurer to the healthy enjoyment of
the sea life will not be allowed to be withdrawn. To-
day the development of this rig owes more than is
usually admittea to the yachtsman, who remains, as has
been well said, the only educated sailing-man at a time
when the remaining sailors are, if not marine engineers,
at any rate nautical chauffeurs who look upon a ship
rather as a convenient creature for housing their wonder-
fblly complex machinery than as a being of infinite
character, infinite beauty, and of incredible charm. So
lon^ as the ship is allowed to retain her sails — ^not as
auxiliaries but as essentials — she can only be improved
by the addition of a motor as her secondary power.
But as soon as she gives herself over entirely to steam
or oil she sacrifices that simplicity which is, and alwa3rs
has been, the most charming part of her character.
And now, having seen me modem developments of
this rig among our own people, let us pass on to note
the conditions which prevail in other European coun-
tries where the fore-and-aft rig flourishes to-day.
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CHAPTER VIII
THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN SCANDINAVIA,
HOLLAND, BELOIUM, FRANCE, AND SOUTHERN
EUROPE
SCANDINAVIA and the Baltic have been the
dominating influence throughout the history of
north European naval architecture, and so we shall,
in our survey of the modem fore-and-aft rig in foreign
countries, begin in the north, and thence on our souui-
ward journey take note of all that Holland, Belgium,
France, and southern Europe may have to show us
in r^ard to our study. We have again to emphasise
the fact that it is impossible within the space allotted
to us to take every species of craft and discuss it in
detail. Our object throughout the course of this book
has been rather to show the connected narrative of the
fore-and-aft rig as exemplified in different waters than
to form a list of every kind of sailing vessel which
each nation possesses. The Norwegian "jaegt," for
instance, with its single mast, square-sail, square top-
sail, and bonnet to the former sail, does not belong
to the fore-and-aft rig, and therefore need not detain
us ; and there are other smaller Norwegian craft which,
with their single mast, square-sail, and double-ended
hull, still keep alive the ancient characteristics of the
Viking craft.
From the use through centuries of that square-sail
there has come gradually and in the most natural
manner the lugsail of varying patterns carried on
these double-ended fishing-boats. Who shall say how
it was that the square-sail in northern Europe as in
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278 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
Eg3rpt was to give way to, or rather be merged into,
the lug of some sort ? Most probably it was for the
same reason that compelled the Egyptian to adopt the
nugffar rig — ^because of handiness for windward work«
It iQways seems to me that the transition from the
Vikii^r square-sail to the lug really began with the
use of bowlines. After that the transformation of the
canvas from a square to a fore-and-aft sail came fairly
easily. But whatever was the exact cause of the
transition, the lug spread from Norway to Scotland,
as we saw just now, and thither also crossed the Norse-
like fa^ion in naval architecture which has given those
double ends to the Scotch fishing craft.
The pure descent, then, from the square-rigged
Vikinff ship in Scandinavia to-day is one of uiose
so-calkd " yawls " with double ends, the mast stepped
about midships, no decks, and one large square-sail
as our forefatners beheld it when the enemies of our
land swept down in fleets from their country across
tiie North Sea. And first cousin to this "yawl" is
that other kind of craft similar in most respects save
for the fact that the square-sail has changed itself into
a lug. These are the first two classes to be borne in
mind. But the north was to be influenced by the
south ; and as Holland, at the height of her maritime
power, was to affect the rig of England's small craft,
so this Dutch influence was to spread to Scandinavia.
And thus we find to-day in Norway, in Sweden, in
Denmark, and along the German coast in the Baltic,
that the spritsail of Holland is used just as it was by
the Dutch of the sixteenth centuir. That is to say,
the sail is not peaked as it is in the modem Thames
barge, but the peak is no higher, and sometimes even
slightly lower, than the throat of the sail. This is the
third type — ^the application of a characteristicallv Dutch
rig on to a typically Scandinavian t3rpe of hulL And
there is the fourth type which shows the further in-
fluence of the later development of the fore-and-aft
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IN SCANDINAVIA 279
ri^, which has done away with the sprit, and instead
added a boom and gaff, added also another mast —
brought about the giuliot, in fact, also like the Dutch.
And lastly, did our limits permit us, we could go on
to show the land of the Viking yielding to English
influence and going in for steamships.
Now it is remarkable that the people of the north,
notwithstanding the fact that they have shown them-
selves willing to a^pept the cutter and the ketch rigs,
have nevertheless held on to a more or less Viking
shape of hull The same motive that prompted the
old Norsemen to choose a double-ended craft, that
to-day influences the design of lifeboats, whale-boats,
and Scotch fishing craft — ^namely, the desire to get
the best design for the worst weather — is still at
work in the fashioning of the craft of the Baltic
and Norway. We have in our last chapter seen this
influence coming back again in the latest type of the
best British cruisers — ^in Maud, in Seal, and so on.
For magna est Veritas et prasvalebit You may suppress
truth for centuries, but by its own power it will raise
itself into recognition agam in due course. You may
forsake all the lessons which evolved from the Norse
period, you may banish their designs from appearing
m your craft from the beginning of the sixteenth
century, but here in the twentieth you are ^ing
back to them. The fact is that history is emphatically
not one long procession of progress: rather it is a
series of progressions and regressions. At the time
of the Vikings it was profession indeed, and naval
architects to-day of the highest standing, who have
gone carefiillv over the lines of these Viking ships
which have been unearthed and still exist in Nor-
way, tell you that their design could not be excelled
even by our best men of modem times.
But thereafter all sorts of side-influences came in
to modify the straight course of development. The
demand for big-bemed cargo-carriers, the growth of
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880 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
the stemcastle and the forecastle, the wild, eccentric
influence of the towering poop of the sixteenth aiMl
seventeenth centuries, the craze for ships of ^reat
tonnage, the influence of artillery on snip designs,
the addition of a kind of stem pktform to the tran-
som stem, and so the tnuifdtion to the later counter —
these separate forces caused the natural — ^the Viking —
ends of a ship to be developed beyond all recognition.
Therefore, in the present, which is an age rather of
inquiry than of blind ccmvention, it is but natural
that we should go back to first principles. If we have
in mind the desire for a vessel of moderate size, that
is not to be hampered by any considerations of carao
accommodation, warfare, enormous tonnage for the
canying of laive crews and soldiery » or racing : if, in
short, we are kK>king for that which the old Vikings
— the first great seafaring people of northern Europe —
wanted, viz. a good sea-craft, then it is only reasonable
that we shoula cast our eyes in the direction of the
NcMTse r^on and study the type which generation
after generation has happily preserved.
The history of any country is roughly thus, is it
not ? It begins with utter chaos and absence of rule.
Then order enters in, and the country begins steadily
to prosper. The next step sees it advancing rapidly to
prosperity until it attains a climax. So lon^ as it re-
mains at that pivot it influences the other nations in all
sorts of ways, of which shipping is one. Then there
sets in the retrogression from that high point ; it ceases
to be an influence, and some other nation usurps its
former proud position. It was so with Rome, it was
with the land of the Norsemen, it was with Spain, it
was with Holland ; and there are those who say that with
England the retrogression has begun. The Norsemen
rose from insignificance to superiority in northern
Europe, and alter the climax of their power was
reached they dwindled away to nothing. But as a
relic of their epoch of supremacy there survives the
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IN SCANDINAVIA 281
Viking design in ships. The Dutch also bequeathed
to us the sloop or cutter rig, just as ancient Rome had,
before she declined, left to the world a legacy that is
still the basis of all legal systems. Spain rose to
supremacy and then feU, but she had unlocked the
door of the New World and shown to the East what a
wonderful treasure-house the West contained. And if
we must apply ourselves strictly to matters of marine
interest, let us add that it was the Spanish who be-
queathed to posterity the first data for the science and
art of navigation.
To come back, then, to our main theme, it would
seem to have been the duty of the Vikings to leave
for us the right design for a sea-craft, and it is only
to-day that after years of cross-purposes and bung-
ling we are beginning to recognise tne value of that
legacy. We are wont in England to speak of the
" canoe-stem," but that is because we have been accus-
tomed to see such an ending to a boat on these frail
craft. It would be more correct if we were to describe
the type as the Norse stem. The old-fashioned stem is
vanishing even from those very different steel walls
which compose our modem navies. Take the torpedo-
boats and destroyers: consider the stem even of a
modem " Dreadnought," and there is nothing of the
square or circular q^aracter which belonged to the
stems of the period when the " wooden warn " were in
vogue. We need not enter into the very different
reasons which have influenced the Admiralty to intro-
duce a stem-formation different from a few years ago.
A number of reasons could be adduced connected with
warfare, but another reason is found in the progress of
modem naval architecture.
And if we pass over those intermediate centuries
when architectural truths were forgotten, when the
shipman was not able to realise how much his earliest
ancestors had taught him, and then come down to the
most modem times, we shall find that the curve of
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282 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
coincidence begins with the Vikings, bears away for
centuries, and then comes back to the epoch in which
we are now dwelling. It is indeed no rssti prophecy to
suggest that the influence of the general lines of the
Norse-like bow and stem will in the future.be evi-
denced in such craft as our fishing-boats, pilot craft,
and yachts to an extent never before attempted. The
fact was that the early Norwegians grasped an im-
Eortant fact and held on to it. Because they never
ad reason during the Middle Ages to become a great
nation of discoverers, or traders, or fighters, they never
had to build great ships, and so never lost hold of their
original design. We certainlv have lost hold of that
formation, but are getting back to it.
As our space is hmited, we will content ourselves with
four separate tjrpes of the north in which this early in-
fluence still persists in spite of the difierent natures of the
respective craft. These four will embrace an auxiliary
motor fishing craft, a sailing lifeboat, a pilot-craft, and
a famous and historic contemporary vessel engaged
in Polar exploration. Common to all these, thougn of
different tonnage, is the influence we have just l)een
discussing. The first of these will be seen in Fig. 88,
which shows the lines of an auxiliary motor fisning-
boat of Frederikshaven, Denmark, which is here repro-
duced through the courtesy of M. So^, the well-known
French naval architect. Almost all the boats of this
type are now fitted with paraflin motors and are ketch-
ngged, and yet practically the old Viking lines of the
hull are still retamed as will be seen. Of course they
have been slightly modified for modem needs ; other-
wise they are as stated.
It may seem to the mere archaeologist that it is
almost shameful to debase so old and venerable a type
of craft by the addition of a motor propeller and its
shaft. But this same species of critic would in Viking
times have asserted that it was a shame to spoil those
beautiful, long ships by the addition of a mast and sail.
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284 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
seeing that they could be rowed so welL Surely it is
the duty of the shipman, no matter what age he may
be living in, to do the best he can to give his craft a
greater efficiency, and to avail himself of any and every
mvention or device towards this end. We can be quite
sure that if, say, about the eighth century of our era
there had been such things as paraffin motors in Norway
the Vikings would most certainly have installed them
when once they had convinced themselves of their suit-
ability for the work to be undertaken. The Danish
craft before us measures 16-75 metres in length over all,
and is driven by an Alpha motor of 20 horse-power.
In the modem ** redningskoite," or Norwegian
sailing lifeboat, the same important convention that
we have noted still survives. The exceedingly interest-
ing plans of this singularly able type of craft (Figs. 89,
92, and 97) have been here reproduced through the
courtesy of Mr. Colin Archer, who migrated across the
North Sea to settle in the port of Larvik. Here is a
most interesting case of a Britisher actually influencing
the shipping of Norway, just as Norw^ in the jmst has
influenced the shipping of Britain. There is m exist-
ence a brave little snip whose name is known in every
civilised country, which has been north and south from
one end of the world to another, and will be remembered
throughout history, not merely for the enterprise, the
courage, and the important scientific results belonging
to those whom she carried, but will, for her own powers
of endurance, her strength, and design, be venerated
throughout the centuries. Every reader has her name
on the tip of his tongue. At the present tnoment she
is away in the South Atlantic making oceanic investi-
gations after having landed Captain Amundsen (the
ero of the North- West Passage) preparatory to his
attempt to make a dash for the South Pole. A few
years ago this Fram carried Nansen northwards on his
famous expedition towards the North Pole. We shall
call attention to her again and give an illustration of
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IN SCANDINAVIA 285
her shortly, but for the present one may just note that
her designer was not a Norwegian, but Mr. Archer of
Larvik.
Now to return to the " redningskoite," let us at
once remark that this type of vessel has been taken as
the basis for the improved modem fishing and pilot
craft of Norway. Furthermore, it is to Mr. Archer that
these separate classes have been thus improved. He
would seem to have be^n by creating not a new and
altogether different kind of craft, but rather to have
taken the existing characteristic Norwegian species and
to have worked on that model in the direction of
iniprovement. This " redningskoite " is, as a type,
different from our British lifeboat. The latter is more
a boat, the former is more a ship. The British type is
mostly open, being decked only at the ends, whereas
the Norwegian type is decked all over. The lifeboat
has practically no accommodation, but the ** rednings-
koite " has ample cabin room below, and can keep tne
sea for days mdependently of the shore even in the
wildest weather iidiich blows on the cruel Norwegian
coast. " This type of boat,"^ says Mr. Archer in a letter
to the present writer, " gives perhaps the best idea of my
work. Those I have built for pleasure-sailing only are
nearly all modifications of the same type, being designed
more for good sea-going qualities than for sj>eed. The
modem pdot-boat is very like a redningskoite (except
the internal fittings) but smaller, being generally 88 to
40 ft. over all.**
Looking at the accompanjring plans, no one can hesi-
tate to admire the admiraole sea-keeping qualities which
this Norw^an lifeboat type possesses. It is essentially
a northern design, and should be compared with the
Unes of the Frederikshaven fishing-boat we discussed
just now. The common influence which is seen in the
Gogstad ship and other specimens of the Viking craft
now unearthed (and referred to in detail in my bailing
Skips) is here vividly manifest in the essential lines of
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286 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
the redningskoite ; but the latter has also the- impfove-
ments which time has brought in the shape of a oetter
rig than the old square-sail, a better form of rudder — at
tM stem instead of at the side — ^better internal acccnn-
modation, and better methods generally of producing a
fine, able sea-boat allied to the qualities of handiness
and comfic^
These vesseb are built of the greatest possiUe
strength that a wooden ship of their size could possess ;
oak, as in the case of the old Viking ships, being
almost exclusively employed It is b^use this red-
ningskoite was built primarily for ability in bad weather
that those modem yachtsmen who prefer a ship to a
pretty toy, who would choose a healthy and able cruiser
before a racing machine, are selecting this type as a
basis for the design of their new craft The mcmd we
mentioned has certain resemblances, because her pedi-
gree may be summed up thus : she was built in Scotland
and influenced by the Loch Fyne type of craft, which
in turn was brought about inmrectfy by the proximity
of Norway to Scotland, as already we have observed.
The Maud was designed for ocean cruising, not for
potterinff about the Solent in fine weather. The
redningskoite, as we have seen, was also designed for
bad weather, and so, owing to the two forces respectively
of Norway and bad weather operating on these two
ships, we get a common similarity whidi is more than
accidental In the same river Hamble, so well known
to most yachtsmen, one has the opportunity of compar-
ing the two types by the most happy circumstance.
For besides the maud there is another yacht of roug^y
the same tonnage named the Askgara. The latter is
owned by Mr. Erskine Childers, intemationaUy famous
to many as the author of The Middle of tne Sands.
This Askgard was designed by Mr. Colin Archer as a
yacht but based on the redningskoite type, and thus
notwithstanding the fact that these two yachts were
designed and built hundreds of miles away from each
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IN SCANDINAVIA 287
other and in different countries, yet in their main
features the Mated and Askgard exhibit the clear-cut
influence of Norway.
The reader will recollect that when speaking of the
Bristol Channel pilot craft we referred to the important
value of internal ballast. This fact is equally appreciated
by the craft of the Baltic arid Norway which are so
distinguished for their easy behaviour in a seaway.
Two-thirds of the ballast inside and only one-third
outside on the keel is about the proportion. In the
accompanying lines of the redningskoite it will be seen
that the cut-away bow is totally different from the
exaggerated spoon-bow of the racing yacht, and there
is no possibility of straining through constant hammer-
ing of the waves. The keel is a long straight line so
that the vessel will heave-to and keep on her course
steadily.
Passing next to the sail-plan of this craft, it will be
seen that, like those other sea-keeping craft we have
pointed out, the staysail is hig^ the mizzen being some-
what smaller than is usual in ketches. There are those
who insist on what they call a " ketchy-yawl" ; in other
words, a yawl rig with the mizzen larger than is usual
in a yawl. But amongst others I would prefer to have
the advantage of a yawl-like ketch, by which you have
a good-sized mainsail to drive the ship along, and yet
your comparatively small mizzen is mostly inboard and
projects but little abaft the stem. And so it will be
seen in the sail-plan (Fig. 89). The mainsail and mizzen
are loose-footed and no patent reefing-gear is used, but
double reefing cringles are attached to the leach of the
mainsaiL The foot of the staysail is cut rather high,
and thus prevents the sail from being so depressing
as it might be through driving the wind down on to
the deck from the canvas. From a little abaft where
the helmsman sits right away to the bows on both
sides of the ship a useful and stout rail runs round,
which will give ample protection to the crew in bad
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THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG 289
weather. Just as secure as a bulwark it has none of the
latter's disadvantages, for because of its being open it
allows the water to flow off as rapidly as the seas are
shipped.
In the old-fashioned type of Endish craft the high
bulwark was really a delusion. True, it did afford
some protection, but because it held on its lee-side
such quantities of water before the latter could escape
through the scuppers it actually detracted from the
seaworthiness of the ship quite as projportionately as it
added thereto. Three shrouds on either side are seen
to support the mainmast, which, by the way, has no
spreader. There are no runners or backstays at all.
The mizzen is supported by a single shroud on either
side, but placed well forward of the mast. There are
those who would say that the rudder looks unsightly
placed as it is in these craft, but that is only because
the eye has become so accustomed to seeing a coimter-
stem that it actually misses it when it has disappeared.
The internal accommodation of this redningskoite is
so thorough and attractive that it might well form the
model from which to design the arrangements below
deck of the modem ideal cruiser. Access is given from
the deck by the two companion ladders, the one forward,
the other aft. There is a serviceable cockpit, and some
very stout bollards are placed aft. This is because
these lifeboats sometimes have to tow home small
fishing-craft caught out in bad weather. On either
side of the bowsprit will be noticed a kind of cathead
with fairlead therein. No one could assert that these
add to the beauty of the ship, but they are eminently
serviceable and prevent the cable chain from grinding
away against the craft's bows. In the steerage there
are the sail-locker, the lamp room, provision lockers,
&c. ; forward of which comes the saloon, with table in
the centre and two beds on either side. A coke stove
is placed at the forward end of this saloon, and a door
gives access into the forward cabin.
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In the flhutntioii (Fig. 76) will be seen a photo-
graph of a modern Norwegian pilot-eraft, which,
except for being cutter-rigged and for her intonal
fittii^^ is very similar to the redningskoite. She
carries a large staysail and a small jib like the
Bristol Channel nikyt-craft Like the hitter, too, she
is a stannch, phidcy little vessel, having about thirty-
eight to forty feet in length over alL Hot mainsail
is peaked very high, and she sets a smaU topsail
But it is her hull which is of such interest to us
with its retention of those oninently northern features
of which we have spcken already. There are several
vachts in England of varying snes which have been
based on these pilot-craft, and if not fest in light winds
they have proved themsdves to be splendid sea-boats.
Finally we come to the FVnm (Fig. 86), which,
though a consideraUy laiger vessel than any we have
been dealing with in this dutpter, bears in her hull
the eminoiUy characteristic Ncnrw^ian features. She
is really douUe-ended, thou^ this design was adopted
less from considaati<Mis of weather than as a protection
against the ice. Still, it is interesting none the less
to note this repetition of type in Norwqrian craft
irrespective of size or rig.- Some means had to be
sougnt by her designer to afibrd her such a stem as
woidd be able efibctually to cheat the ice, and he
found no more useful ston far this Polar ship than
in that which prevailed in most of the craft of the
north. It is now a matter of history that the JFram
has shown herself a magnificent sea-craft and able
succe^ftiUy to withstand the attacks of the ice.
The accompanying illustration was taken just before
she left <m nor expedition which was to liable
Captain Amundsen to make his dash fcnr the South
Pole.
We have spoken a good deal of the part which
Holland in the past has played in the development
of the fore-and-aft rig: we may now pause a^prtiile
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Fig pa
Dutch Tjalks
Notice the high sterns in these.
P. 291
Fig. 91.
A Smaller Dutch Tjalk
There is an absence of sheer and the stem is not high.
P. 291
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IN HOLLAND 291
to examine the prevailing types which are in use to-
day. And first let us consider the tjalk, which is
the type of sailing-craft that is most frequently met
with everywhere on the Dutch waters. Usually she
is of about fifty to seventy tons, and is characterised
by her round bows ana stem, the latter being
frequently higher than the bows ; such is the persist-
ence of the sixteenth-century precedent. These
craft have a flat bottom, and are, of course, fitted
with leeboards. You see them everywhere creeping
along with their brown sails, perhaps beating up the
Engelische Varwater or running mto the Orange
locks that keep out the Zuyder Zee from Amster-
dam. You meet them coming into Rotterdam with
their cargoes ready to be put aboard the sea-going
liners; you see them threamng their way in and out
of the tightly packed havens or brought up at night
just clear of the fairway in the Schelde, or perhaps
sailing stealthily through the night, not with side-
lights as is our custom, but with a white light
exhibited at the masthead. In the two illustrations
(Figs. 90 and 91) one can see three tjrpes of the
tjaU: — ^the large, the medium, and the smalL In
the first two the sheer from bow to stem is pro-
nounced; in the last of the three it is altogether
vanished. Some of these craft have a single main-
sheet of steel wire which is worked by a hand-gear firom
aft, and some of them have auxiliary motors installed.
Looking for a moment at the illustration (Fig.
91) containing only one tjalk, it will be seen
that just below the staysail there is a triangular-
shaped arrangement consisting of two spars. When
the mast is fowered this gradually rises to its feet so
that the apex points upwards, and it resembles the
letter A. At this apex the forestay passes over, so
that an increased assistance is given m the work of
raising the mast when the bridge has been passed
under. The mainsail is always loose-footed and
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292 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
frequently triced up, but the gaff, which is seen to
be curved in the case of the smallest tjalk, is strai^t
like our own ships in the bigger ones. Sometimes
there is a deck-house aft, and the skipper carries
with him his wife, his flaxen-haired little daughters,
and a couple of his sons, who work the ship between
them. You may sometimes find a smaller tjalk with
only the skipper, his wife, his little girl, and his boy
of about ten or eleven. In a flat calm as he
comes into Amsterdam or alon^ the tidal Maas into
Rotterdam you may see the httle boy and girl go
ahead in the ship's boat and endeavour to tow this
hefty vessel. How they have physical strength so to
do 1 know not; all I can say is that I have seen
them doing it.
The boat which the smallest tjalk (Fig. 91) is seen
to be towing is typical of Holland. Flat-bottomed,
with high bows lUce a hotter, varnished outside, with
a ffreen gunwale and a white stripe, and both bow
and stem alike saving for the addition of some dead-
wood aft to make ner steer better, this is not a
light craft but one of the most seaworthy dinghies
which time could possibly evolve. They are very
strong, and if an English yachtsman were to add a
dagger plate they would be as good for sailing,
rowing, and towing as the pram dinghy. I asked a
Dutch shipbuilder how they described these craft,
and he told me the name was a "Boskoop boot,"
Boskoop being a little waterside town on the canal
between Gouda and Amsterdam. The decks of the
tjalk seem to an Englishman to be encumbered with
too many quants, sounding poles, and lengthy boat-
hooks. And yet these are afl required where so much
locking in and out of a sluis, so much creeping over
short-cuts infested with sand-banks, so much hauling
along quays have to be done in the course of the
voyage. Nowadays the tjalk is usually built of iron,
and retains much of the former shape which has done
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IN HOLLAND 298
duty for centuries. But the old-fashioned wooden
tjalks are so mellow in their appearance, so well
taken care of, so deserving of respect, that it is to be
hoped that iron will not utterly eradicate them.
In the illustration (Fig. 98) will be seen a sketch
of another very familiar Dutch type. This is the
klipper, which is a decided^ bigger craft, longer and
proportionately narrower. They sail well, are usually
Fio. 93.— Dutch Klippbb.
Usnallyfketch-rigged, built of iron, with an enormous horiiontal steering-wheel
and clipper bows, these craft carry much of the cargo from one end of
Holland to the other.
ketch-rigged though sometimes cutter-rigged. Built
of iron, the larger craft have an enormous steering-
wheel, which is placed horizontally and not vertically
as in our ships, so that it is possible immediately to
alter the large rudders even a quarter of a point
when making their voyage through the winding
rivers and canals. There is enormous space in the
hold for the cargo, and a deck-house is placed aft for
the skipper's family. The bipod attachment for raising
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294 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
the lowered mast that we spoke of just now will again
be seen to be illustrated at the foot of the forestay.
These craft have a clipper bow, leeboards, loose-footed
nuiinsaU, bowsprit, jib, and staysail, and when rigged
as ketches are as seen in this sketch. For getting up
the bow-anchor they have a powerfid capstan forward
which is worked by means of the circular iron wheel
and handle just as on a laundress' wringing-machine.
Right aft, underneath the counter, there is a hole in
which there is a stockless anchor. This is sometimes
let go when running into a crowded haven or lock
and the ship has too much way on, but is too long
to luff up in the narrow confines of these waters.
Frankly, the klipper is not a beautiful craft; she is
really just a smaller edition of one of those great
2000-ton •* Rhine-schifis," but is driven by her own
sail-power instead of being towed by a powerful little
steam tug. There are innumerable winches on these
modem JDutch craft for the halyards, mainsheets, lee-
boards, and anchors, which have brought the art of
labour-saving down to its finest point.
Most interesting is a totally different species of
Dutch craft as seen in the next two of our illustrations
(Figs. 94 and 95). This is the hotter. In the fore-
^ound of the sketch is one from the Island of Urk
in the Zuyder Zee. Her high, bold bows make her
ideal for combatting the nasty, steep seas of the Zuyder
Zee and of the North Sea off the Dutch coast They
come on Mondays across the former from the IslancJs
of Urk or Marken, lock through the Orange Sluis,
sail along the Eye through Amsterdam, and so out
through the Ymuiden locks into the North Sea. The
following Saturday will see them again doing the
return journey, calling at Amsterdam to take liome
the Sunday's meat for their families. The ships are
like their crews and the latter's costumes — old-world
and unique. The men are as fine and stalwart as
their craxt, and, in their own particular line of sea-
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IN HOLLAND
295
manship, unsurpissed. These craft seem usually to
be handled with a crew of three, perhaps the father
and his two sons, of whom the younger is a gmere
boy in years but has the seaman's instinct born and
bred in him as it has been in his family for centuries.
Manly, healthy, clear-skinned, flaxen people in their
Fio. »4.— Dutch Bottebb.
These have their home on the Znyder Zee, and oome from sach ports
as the Isles of Marken and Urk.
baggy knickerbockers (much patched) and stockings
and wooden shoes, there is something singularly
attractive about them. Usually their craft cruise
under staysail and main, the latter being loose-footed
and laced to the mast, and the gaff is short; but
sometimes they run out a bowsprit and set a jib as
well
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296 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
The hotter rarely ships any solid water, even when
it is blowing hard on the Zuyder Zee, though she
throws up a good deal of spray from her high bows. A
noticeable feature of these craft is that the mast is
stepped well aft and the staysail is very big. From
the photograph (Fig. 95), which was taken at Monni-
kendam, on the Zuyder Zee, just opposite the Isle of
Marken, an excellent idea may be formed of the deck-
plan of the hotter. She has a large fore-deck ; imme-
diately abaft this is stepped the mast, aft of which,
again, is a very lar^ well for working the nets. On
either side of ^e ship, at the break of the fore-deck, is
installed a pump. Her leeboards are anjrthing but
shoe-shaped, being quite narrow and small. Neverthe-
less, she goes to windward and points nearer the wind
than one would expect. As to size, these craft vary
from SO ft. to 50 ft. in length, and have the whole of
their ballast inside. The danger of these vessels is that
they sometimes get pooped, when their great open well
soon fills, and they sink. The '^ hatchet-shaped rudder
is very Dutch-like. They are carvel-built, and being
quite flat underneath, can take the ground quite easily
in tidal harbours. Fitted with open gratings below the
water-line, the water can be run m and out so as to keep
the fish fresh.
I have had every opportunity for studying them —
on the slips for repairs, m harbour, under-way, and have
examined them carefully on board — and it would be
difficult to find a better type of craft for the work thev
are called upon to perform. Some of the Dutcn
sportsmen have had their yachts built on these models,
in which case they are decked in all over with a fine
ample cabin, a forecastle (under the fore-deck), and cock-
pit. I have seen them turning to windwani out of a
very narrow harbour (ais, for mstance, Scheveningen),
and noted how handy they are under merely main- and
stay-sail. There is a powerful but simple winch fore-
ward just as it was in the sixteenth century, with a
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Fig:. 9S
Isle of Marken BoTTf:RS
p. 204
The large foredeck of these craft helps to keep them dry and a very large well abaft the mast
gives plenty of room for their nets.
Fig. 96.
HooGARTs Fishing Fleet
p. 208
Notice the large amount of " drift " between the mast and the throat of the spritsail
on the hoogarts to the right of the picture. The craft to the left near the man is
more modern and has a mainsail with boom and gafT. (See also Figs. 99 and xoo.)
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IN HOLLAND
297
great wooden drum worked by handspikes and pro-
vided with pawls.
The schokker is a modified hotter, but bigger, and
an excellent sea-boat. As will be seen from the sketch
in Fig. 98, she has a cleft in her stem-head, in which
she [stows her anchor, usually a grapnel. The stem-
FlG. 98.— DUTOH SOHOKKSBS.
The oleft in the stem-head for the grapnel anchor is very characteristio.
post comes down to the keel at an angle of about forty-
five degrees, and the keel is straight and long. The
method of coating the foresail, as illustrated, is quite a
peculiarity of Holland. The air is able to get from
underneath, but the cover keeps off the rain, and looks
rather like a gigantic candle-snuffer. This, idea is not
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298 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
peculiar to the schokker, but is employed on many other
kinds of Dutch craft.
The hoogarts are practically small schokkers. In
many a respect they are ideal shallow-draught craft.
They are rigged with extreme simplicity, and they are
wonderfully handy. Most of them are rigged with a
spritsail, but some are rigged as sloops. Their real
home is the Island of Wiucheren, especially at Flush-
ing, the fishing harbour of which on a Saturday is full
of these, as two of the illustrations (Figs. 96 and 99)
will show. They are flat-bottomed, and the way these
craft turn to windward up the Walcheren Canal past
Middleburg to the picturesque and quaint little haven
at Veere is an inspuiting sight. Single-handed, there
may be a couple of them tacking together, and being
excellent sportsmen, each skipper races right into the
very lock entrance to get there first. Then, not content
witn that, he endeavours to get his craft out first as
soon as the gates open the other side, and away they
fo, tack and tack, with a yard or so to separate them,
landy as a small rater, their work takes them outside,
where a rater would not live for many minutes, and it
is a fine sight to see the fleet running home before a
fair wind into Flushing from the sea.
Their vocation is connected with the mussel-fishery,
and they are fitted up as follows. There is a fore-deck,
which comes as far aft as the mast. Then there is an
open well, in which there is placed a large stove, appar-
ently for boiling the musselis. Aft of this comes the
cabin, with a bunk on either side and a hatch above.
Then follows an open cockpit, across which is a horse
for the mainsheet to work on. The staysail also works
on an iron horse. The sketch (Fig. 100) is from a
model that was put together by one of the guild of men
who build these noogarts ; it may therefore be regarded
as correct. Taken in conjunction with the photographs
it will afford an accurate idea of these very interestmg
vessels. It has been suggested that these little craft
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FlO. 100.— HOOOABTS OF Walohbbbm.
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800 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
would make ideal boats, if slightly modified, for those
English yachtsmen addicted to '' ditch-crawling/' though
the sloop would be preferred to the sprit-rig. All these
craft, without exception, carry weather-vanes at the
masthead, and have the hatchet-shaped rudders with
helms that unship.
It is very cunous to notice that in the case of the
sprit-rigged hoogarts there is a bracket of iron, shaped
somethmg like a magnet, which extends from the mast,
to which the throat of the sail is lashed. This will be
observed in the accompanying photo^phs. Thus,
instead of the leach of the sail being quite dose to the
mast, as we in this country are accustomed to find, there
is quite a considerable " drift." This will be well seen in
the sketch of the model. Inside the hull there is no
lining, but, as in the case of the hotter, the timbers
are all showing.
There is but one bndling-line and there are two
vangs, but neither shrouds nor runners; and this fact
gives us furiously to think who have always been
accustomed to such supports. They carry both jib and
foresail, the latter havmg at its head a tiny yard, and
when this foresail is stowed it is rolled round and round
itself till it looks as if it had some sort of modem patent
reefing-gear, though of course it has no such thing.
But t£is method is one of the oldest Dutch character-
istics, as may be seen from examining some of the
pictures by the old Dutch masters. The hoogarts is
clinker-built, has easy and graceful lines, and a good
deal of tumble-home. The bowsprit has no shrouds
whatsoever, nor bobstay, nor has she always a forestay.
In fact, one begins to wonder how ever any of her spars
are supported, until one realises that the sprit and its
van^ must be taken into account. When in harbour
the hoogarts has its jib lashed to the bowsprit, in readi-
ness for getting under way again.
The heel of the sprit is kept to the mast by a lashing
of rope, and there is another lashing higher up to keep
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IN HOLLAND 801
the throat to the •* magnet." To prevent chafing, there
is a copper sheathing round the mast at the latter place,
the peak of the sprit reaching about as high as the truck
of the mast. These craft of course carry leeboards,
and their bows have a good deal of overhang, as in the
schokker. Like the latter, they also frequently carry a
grapnel-anchor, so as to give a better hold in mud than
the ordinary pattern. The topsail seen in the sketch is
very old-fashioned, and reminiscent of a bygone age.
This sail also exhibits the former affection of the Dutch
sailor-man for the diminutive yard we spoke about
just now.
We come now to the boier, which originally was
not a fishing-craft, but a cargo-carrier and yacht. In
the sketch (Fig. 101) will be seen a reproduction of a
fine little model preserved in the Rijks Museum. The
shoe-shaped leeboards are not a bit exaggerated. The
very small gaff, the mast stepped in a tabernacle, the
curved ensign-staff, the forestay ending in a deadeye
and spreaders that are made fast through the stem-
head, the single shrouds at either side of the mast, the
great horse for the mainsheet, the raised stem, and
the bold, curved rudder — ^these are all typical of their
nationality, with the large streamer at the top to crown
alL The boier is one of the oldest, if not the very
oldest, of all the types of Dutch craft To-day the
type is perpetuated by a large number of boier yachts
possessed by the Dutch sportsmen. In fact, there are
more Dutch yachts of this type than of any other.
They are small, little ships, apparently about twenty-five
feet over all, with cabins, varnished hulls, and a lavish
display of gold paint, especially at the stem. They are
emmently suitable for inland cruising, but after watch-
ing a good many of them cruising and racing at regatta-
time, I am not convinced that they are anything but
slow. Their chief charm to an Englishman must lie in
their historic interest, for, like the hoo^rts, they carry
one instantly back into bygone centunes. The repro-
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Fig. 101.— DtJTCH Boibh.
From a model in the Rijkt Moseam.
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••• :••
• ; •
. * ^* • • • • •••* • •• • •••
Fig. 102.
OsTEND Fishing Smack
p. 310
Notice the result of the influence of the British North Sea Fishing
Smacks on this type of craft.
Fig. 103.
Modern Boier Yachts
p. 303
From a photograph taken in Amsterdam at Reeaita time on Queen Wilhelmina's birthday.
(See also Fig. loi.)
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THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG 808
duction of a modem boier yacht (Fig. 108) is from
a photograph taken at regatta-time at Amsterdam on
the occasion of Queen Wilhehnina's birthday, but these
craft are to be seen in many a port of Holland and Fries-
land. Some of them nowadays have an iron bumpkin
projecting forward of the bows, so as to be able to set
Fio. 105.— Ztttdbb Zbb Kub-Boats.
The rig oonBlBts of foresail and triangular malnaail.
a larger foresail, but others even add a bowsprit and
cany a jib.
There is a funny little example of the fore-and-aft
craft which I have seen nowhere else than on the
Zuyder Zee. The natives call her a " kub-boot," and
some idea of her appearance may be seen from the
sketch which is here reproduced in Fig. 105. The boat
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804 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
itself is certainly, considering its size, a plucky kind of
craft, and the rig consists of a mast with foresail and a
triangular mainsail which is hoisted, of course, by a
single halyard, the luff of the sail being kept to the
mast by means of lacing. It is loose-footed, and there
is a good deal of space between the boom itself and the
foot of the sail The little ship has leeboards like her
bigger sisters. Practically this is a trysail, but it is a
definite and regular rig which may be seen in Monni-
kendam. The great advantage which it possesses lies
in the fact that it can instantly be lowered by slacking
off the lacing and letting go the halyard.
Spedcing of the Deiu galley in our previous chapter
one was reminded that at Flushing there is a foreign
counterpart of this type of open sauing-craft Perhaps
there are few spots in the world which contain so many
pilots as this httle town. Side by side along the sea-
iront are two club-houses where a ceaseless look-out is
kept, the one being for the Dutch, the other for the
Belgian pilots — loodsxvezen is the Dutch word for our
EngUsh " pilotage, " loods ** being a pilot. Originally
the loods was the man who hove the lead, and thus
navigated the ship safely through the intricate channels,
for the Dutch equivalent for the word lead is loocL
Now for putting out fix>m the shore to a ship bound up
to Antwerp, a '' loodssloepe " is employed, and this craft
is practically the Deal lufi^ger. In null she is very like
her, and has both length and freeboard to make her
able to encounter the choppv waters of the Schelde,
where the tides are exceedingly strong and a consider-
able sea soon gets up when wind is against tide.
These " sloepes " are rigged with a lugsail on the mast
which is stepped about amidships. At the extreme
stem a small mizzen is stepped, practically the whole
of that sail being outboard, the sau being sheeted home
with the assistance of an outrigger, though not raked
at the high angle possessed by the Cornish luggers.
The reader will recollect that we referred some time
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IN HOLLAND
805
back to the matter of the Una-rig, and besides mention-
ing the fact that the earliest fore-and-aft rig in England
was such, we went on to refer to the present-day rig of
the Norfolk wherry and of the American cat-boat.
Now in Holland there is still in use the Dutch equi-
Fio. 106.— MODBRN Dutch Una-Rio.
Seen on the River Amstel near Amsterdam.
valent for this species of a fore-and-after. The sketch
in Fig. 106 was made of a vessel seen on the river
Amstel a few miles south of Amsterdam. There is
no headsail of any kind, and the mast must necessarily
be stepped a long way forward. The sail is laced to
u
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806 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
the mast in the usual Dutch fashion, and the vessel
also carries leeboards. I have never seen one of these
craft except when running free» so cannot say how well
she fi^oes to windward. In length the boat here shown
womd seem to be somewhere about 28 ft. over all,
and there is a cabin right aft for the skipper and his
family. They sail quite well before the wind and are
not slow, but of course their special virtues are con-
fined to the suitability for inland navigation.
One may wonder how many visitors to the Hague
and Scheveningen, with the latter's cosmopolitan
crowd and its crude modem pleasure palaces, ever
stop to examine those curious old crarb which are
found on its beach and in its harboiu*. These pinks
are indeed the most interesting features of the place,
possessing a history of their own and a conservatism
that is unique even in conservative Holland. But to
the casual tourist these weather-worn craft may not
seem sufficiently attractive to be worth even a glance,
and the harbour is at the other end of the sea-front,
some distance away from the noisy crowd. Some of
the modem Dutch painters, like their predecessors,
never weary of depicting these fisher-craft in all
weathers, and frequently m storms running back to
the Scheveningen beach.
To understand these weird, beamy objects one
must first realise the objects for which they were
built. Off Scheveningen the water is somewhat
shallow for some distance out from the shore, and it
is notorious that in even a moderate on-shore wind the
seas get very bad. The pink puts forth to sea and
expects to ride out this weather to her nets. The first
aim in building her is to make her of enormous
strength, and speed is altogether out of the question.
When she has finished her fishing she sails back to the
beach about hi^h tide, and then takes the ground, and
^rradually the tide leaves her high and dry. The beach
IS all sand, but in bad weather there is, naturally, a
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IN HOLLAND
807
good deal of bumping before the vessel definitely
settles down. It is for this reason that the pink (Fig.
107) is built so stoutly. The sea may eontinually pidc
her up and drop her down again, yet she can endure
FIO. 107.— SOHSYRNnrOBN PIKK&
They are ezacU j two beams to their length and remarkably etrong.
all that. She is -given also a very broad keel, and in
general is so designed that she can take the ffround
with ease. Contrariwise, she is also ^ven such lines
by her keel that she will float as qmckly as possible.
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808 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
and be able to get off to her work when a few feet of
water have risen.
Now that the harbour at Scheveningen has been
made what it is^ one may find alongside its quays
quite big editions of these eraft» but even then they
are still built with an amount of beam that is almost
incredible to eyes that have been accustomed to other
craft. Let it be said at once that the pink is only
twice as long as she is wide» and looking at her for the
first time you would say she was just an oblong box
designed by a madman. Clinker-built, she is sloop-
rigged with mainsail, jib, and foresail Her bluff
bows are bluffer than anything else in Holland. Pinks
measure 40 ft. long and 20 ft. wide, being 12 ft. deep.
It is important to remember that these dimensions
are fixed and immutable. They have leeboards, of
course, and the inevitable vane at their masthead. In
very fine weather they carry a narrow topsail, and
sail straight on to the beach with everything up, and
wait till the tide ebbs. Like certain other types of
Dutch craft, these pinks have frequently no bobstay to
their bowsprit.
Frankly the pink does not appeal to one as in any
way a beautiful craft. It is because of her antiquity
and her natural eccentricities, her ability to stand so
much knocking and buffeting about, that she is deserv-
ing of so much interest. The furthest south I have
seen the pink was in the new Belgian harbour of Zee-
brugge, a few miles north of Ostend ; but there is a
variation of the Scheveningen type a few miles north of
this Dutch resort at Katwijk, luthough Scheveningen,
which has been famous throughout the history of Hol-
land for its herring-fisheries, has ever been the home of
the pink. In the sketch which is reproduced in Fig.
108 will be seen the Katwijk " pom,*' as she is called.
This represents an interesting model which was recentlv
added to the collection in the Rijks Museum. Although
she is a bigger craft and rigged as a yawl rather than a
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IN HOLLAND
809
sloepe» with three headsails instead of two ; although
the lines of the hull are slightly finer than in the pure
pink of Scheveningen, yet, for all that, any one can see
the Scheveningen influence written large all over her.
The crutch for the lowered mainmast, the leeboards,
the general design of the hull, the rudder, the
Fio. 108.— Katwuk-Fom.
This Ib a somewhat larger edition of the Scheveningen pink, and hails from
the port of Eatwijk, a few miles north of Soheverdngen.
streamers at the masthead, and so on, indicate the
near relationship. There is a very powerful capstan
with handspikes on the deck for getting in the nets,
for these Dutch vessels* unlike the British North Sea
fishing-craft, do not cany a boiler for getting in the
nets by steam-power. That same interesting little
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810 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
feature to which we called attention just now when
considering the boier, namely, the deadeye and the
riders cominff down into the stem-post, will also be
rved in this JS^atwijk pom.
And so we leave Holland in our southward trend,
and pass to the other side of the Schelde into Belgium.
As &r south as Blankenberghe the pink influence is still
felt. It is a sandy coast, with dunes and coarse grass
stretching away as far south as Calais where the cliffs
begin. Sut at Ostend, because the craft are no longer
beached and have a good deep harboiu* to enter, a
totally different type of craft obtains ; different, that is
to say, on the one hand from the Dutch vessels, and on
the other from those of France. In the photograph
(Fig. 102) will be seen one of the Ostend fishing fleet,
and instantly it will be obterved that this resemUes the
Ramsgate and Yarmouth smacks more than anything
on the Continent. The riff, the bows, and the generiu
lines of the hull proclaim English rather than Dutch or
French influence. Only the rounded quarters show
the proximity of Hollwd. But if we were to go
aboard the Ostend steam trawlers we should find that
in practically every instance the build was British and
the county Y orkshire. With the exception of Ostend,
however, we have done with either Dutch or British
influence for the present.
We pass into the sphere bf the lugger, into the
influence of France. It is perfectly true that to-day
the old French luffger is fast disappearing and giving
wa^ to the British ketch-rigged type of craft which
Bnxham, Ramsgate, Yarmouth, and Lowestoft have
developed. But nevertheless there are still many large
fleets of luggers along the coast of the continent that
touches the North Sea and the English Channel, and in
the next two designs (Figs. 104 and 109) will be seen
the plans of a Bel^an lugger. This is one of the
smaller trawlers which run out from Dunkirk. As
we regard this craft with its mizzen, main, maintopsail.
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812 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
foresail, and small jib, we have the identical rig which
France made so popular in the eighteenth century, and
was destined to be employed so much by the privateers-
men and smugglers. Originally, of course, there was
no jib ; that is really but a later addition. Neverthe-
less, in spite of this the foremast will be seen still
stepped in its original place, right as far forward as
ever it could be placed. These craft, in spite of their
curious appearance to British eyes, must not be despised.
They look crazy to us, and perhaps their crew do not
keep them as smart and dean as one might wish ; but
for all that they possess the qualities of speed, as the
English Revenue-cutters used to find to their cost
many years ago. The lines of the hull show rather a
box-like craft, with flat floor and wall-sided. In length
this type of Belgian lugger works out at between forty
and fifty feet. In accordance with the old-fashionea
custom of fishermen the masts rake aft a good deal,
and especially is this so in the case of the main.
Some idea of the Dunkirk t3rpe of ketch may be
seen from the design which is given (Figs. Ill and 112).
These craft have a total length over all of 26 metres,
and they also have very flat floors, thouffh not quite
so wall-sided, and have a little tumble-home. This^
Dunkirk ketch goes far away from her home waters
to fish for cod in the neighbourhood of Iceland. Her
main and mizzen are both loose-footed, and she carries
a topsail over the former. With her rig, her straight
stem and straight keel, she is in many respects similar
to the older type of the Ramsgate trawler.
An excellent instance of a Gravelines lugger mav
also here be seen in Figs. 110 and 118. As you look
at her sail-plan you can see how old-fashionai she is,
how close akin to those days before the lugsail began
its regime in French waters when the fishing buss-ships
were three-masted square-sail craft. For look, as an
example, at the mainsail It is nearly the shape of
the old square-sail rather than of the modem lug. It
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THE MOI3ERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG S
has been hauled down by the tack so that the fore pc
of the yard comes down, and the after part is peak^^^
up. We c&ix indeed observ^e most clearly from tKi:^.
how the transition from the square-sail began. Yc
still witness tliis type of eiraft putting to sea fro_.
Gravelines, oir sailing about somewhere between tlx
Dyck Liglxt^sliip and Ostend. But it is fast di«
appearing, and is being replaced by the more modea
craft whicJa are ketch-rigged. It is because the Grav^^^ ^
lines and IZ>vinkirk craft frequent the Dogger BarQ^i:!
where al^o ovur British fishinfi^ fleets congregate, tha^-f
the influence of Ramsgate and Yarmouth has begun t;
be felt. Xlxis fact is even more noticeable in the design
of the Bovilogne herring-drifter seen in Figs. 114 an
115. Notice that she very much resembles the Lowe
toft drifter l>y bemg ketch-rigged, by having ht
mizzen-mast stepped leaning forward, by having ri
boom to Ixer mainsail, and by carrying a topsail ov^c
her miaaien..
These ^Boulogne craft also are engaged in fishing £k
mackerel during the summer with <mft-nets. Th<
pursue the herring on the coast of Scotland and in tliT
North Sea* It is because they have to encounter
ffood deal of weather and sail long distances, even
JSras Ireland, that they are made of good size «
strength- They can do their ten knots an hour witK
feir wind, and are a great improvement on the old
^^^ ^£ [French lugger. In this craft there is no nec^j
Qriv fk>r tXic great capstan that we saw in the KatwiJ
Som £cnr they have copied the English North Sea fishi*:^
^ altogether by having steam capstans installed :5^
the ne^veer type for the purpose of hauling in their ne-f-
S cdi » craft as this measures about 8415 metres ov-
11^30*»0 metres on the water-line, and 27'66 mett:-
JJJJ'^m^e IceeL They are good sea-boats, and no one e^^^
recrret t*^** **^^ French have returned the complim^^^^
frf^Mtrning from us who, in previous times, leamt ^^
much £ram them in matters of naval architecture a^^
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820 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
rig. Dunkirk, Gravelines, and Boulogne all bear wit-
ness to this fact.
But as representative of the old-fashioned type of
chasse-mar^ we could wish for no clearer example than
the fishing-craft of the Bay of St Malo, of which the
designs are here given (Figs. 116 and 117). These craft
are engaged in trawling and mackerel Ime-fishing, and
the same kind of boats are found at Cancale and of the
same rig. These, as well as those belonging to the
Bay of dt. Brieuc, are all known as bisqvinesj but the
bisquines of St Brieuc are not so crowded with sails.
The bisquine came to this part of the world with the
Basques, as the name suggests. The foremast of these
vessels is, as we pointed out in another species of French
lugger, stepped right forward, the main being about
midships and raking aft at a considerable angle, but
the mizzen is only rarely used. The bowsprit carries a
larffe, low jib which is hauled right out. As to the
sai& of the three masts, these are standing-lugs, one
being hoisted to starboard and the other to port, as will
be seen. A large square-headed topsail, and sometimes
two, can be hoisted above the lugs. The lines of these
bisquines are fine, and the scantling is exceedingly
strong and heavy, for, like the pinks, they have to td^e
the ground at low water, the range of the tide being
something like forty feet. But for this great strength
the craft would be bumped to pieces on the sands as
the tide fell. They sail remarkably well, especially
when the wind is on the quarter, and are very stiff.
They measure about 17*70 metres over all, and carry
large crews.
A handy type of small lugger (Figs. 118 and 119)
is seen in the fishing-craft of Equihen, near Boulogne.
These are decked in and fitted with a centre-board,
which is of the sliding and not of the revolving type.
There is a large lug for the main and a smaller one for
the mizzen. This craft carries also a long bowsprit,
well steeved, on which she sets a jib. At the stem,
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IN FRANCE 821
like the Cornish luggers she has an outrigger, also
steeved, for the sheet of the mizzen. The hull of
the little vessel has a nice sheer, and well she needs
this and the protection of her deck ; for in this neigh-
Fig, 120.— Sabdihs Fxbhing-Luoobb or ths Ooabt or Bsittant.
She measnrea roughly 10 metres in length oTer alL
bourhood the tides are notoriously strong, and the
amount of sea that a westerly wind can raise against
a west-ffoinfi^ tide is as bad as any small craft can do
with. In the lines of the hull it will be seen that she
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824 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
is flat-floored like most of the French craft» and that
the centre-board is placed well forward. These craft
measure about 10*10 metres over all, and 8*90, metres
on the water-line.
Every one knows how throughout history the Bretons
have been famous as sailors, perhaps one might say as
the most famous of all the French seafaring men,
whether as pirates, privateers, flshermen, or as crews
of the men-of-war of France. In illustration, p. 821
(Fig. 120), we give the sail-plan of a Breton sardine
boat, such as is found in Douamenez and Concameau.
They measure roufi^hly 10 metres over all in length,
and have a total sail-area of 68 square metres,
the foresail being 80 square metres in area, and the
mizzen 88. In the foregoing plans (Figs. 121 and
122) will be seen another type of the sardine craft.
These belong chiefly to the port of Les Sables d'Olonne
in the Vend^ Like the previously mentioned craft,
they are engaged almost exclusively in fishing for
sardines by means of drift-nets. It should be added
that in a nresh breeze the Douamenez craft sail under
foresail and a small mizzen. So also the Vend^nne
craft, under similar conditions of wind, sail with fore-
sail and mizzen, but with the mainmast lowered. They
have a total sail-area of 68*80 square metres. It will
be seen that in the general rig, the old-fashioned top-
sails and the jib, they are entirely influenced by tne
national craft and rig of France, viz. the chasse-
From the lines of the hull (Fig. 122) it will be
observed that the stern-post rakes aft at a great angle.
These craft measure about 8-50 metres over aU, and
7'48 metres on the water-line, their extreme beam
being 2*98 metres, and they draw 1*80 metres of
water.
In the evil-smelling port of St. Malo there is a
wealth of historical incident lying concealed in its
shipping. In the eighteenth century it was the port
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826 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
whence the numerous privateers embarked for the pur-
pose of seizing the merchant vessels of England, and
it is from here that those big sailing-ships still set
forth, as they have done for many a generation, to
cross the broad Atlantic and engage in cod-fishing off
the Newfoundland Banks. Every one who has read
Kipling's Captains Courageous will remember something
about these French ships, and those who have visited
St. Malo will have realised the depth of sentiment
aroused each year as these ships start off from their
home port for their long, sohtary exile — ^perhaps to
return, perhaps to be run down by some ocean grey-
hound hurrym^ on through the Atlantic fog. There
are more collisions and disasters off the Grand Banks
than ever get into the papers, and many a home in
St. Malo has been bereft of its father and sons.
In the illustration (Figs. 128 and 126) will be seen
one of the St. Malo barquentines which go out to the
Grand Banks. " Terreneuviers " they designate these
craft in France, and there are similar vessels which
also, put forth from Cancale, Granville, and Fecamp.
When they arrive off the fishing grounds the vessds
anchor, and the fishing is done from dories with long
lines ; and as Kipling's or Connolly's readers are aware,
the dories sometimes get so far separated in fogs or
gales of wind that they are never picked up again,
and the men either die of starvation and exhaustion
or are mercifully drowned or run down by a steamship.
This kind of craft measures 48*15 metres long and
89*85 metres on the water-line, with an extreme beam
of 8*72 metres.
The two-masted schooner which is next to be con-
sidered (Fi^ 124 and 128) is also French. She, too,
is engaged m the fishing industry, but she has not so
far to wander as the St. Malo craft. True she is a
Breton, but she voyages to Iceland after the cod.
Besides her lower canvas she carries a square topsail
on her fore and a jib-headed topsail on her main, with
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828 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
a staysail in between, her total sail-area amounting to
428*60 square metres. Her sail-plan has, however,
been since slightly reduced in the case of the craft
before us. She has 88*10 metres in length over all,
and 28*64 metres on the keel, with an extreme beam
of 7*20 metres.
And thus we conclude our survey of the modem
^pes of the fore-and-aft craft as witnessed in northern
Europe. But we will end as we besan this volume,
and show how the old and the new in the Mediterranean
and the Nile still meet after the intervention of centuries
and centuries.
We spoke at the commencement of this book about
the lateen-sail and its influence. It is still in vogue
in the Mediterranean, on the Nile, and also east of
Suez. The trading craft of the Egyptian river no less
than the dahabeiahs for royalty or for carrying the
tourist are still rigged with the sail of history. In
the illustration (Fig. 125) will be seen this rig employed
for the purpose of the Khedive's yacht. The small
mast, the huge yard coming almost down to the deck,
the hollowed foot of the sail, the high peak, and so
on — ^these features are still preserved regardless of the
many species of fore-and-aft rig which have been
evolved oy the north of Europe. And then compare
this with the photograph of a Spanish fore-and-after
which is here shown (Fig. 127). This represents a
Galician sardine boat seen in Vigo Bay. You re-
member in the days just precedmg the coming of
the Armada, when Pmlip was amassing considerable
quantities of provisions for his mighty fleet, that Drake
came south to interrupt these great preparations, and
captured the fishing craft and nets of the Spanish,
thus depriving the Armada, among other details, of
the fish supplies which they would have taken on
board for the expedition, had it been attempted that
year. Well, the rig of the Spanish fisherman has
altered but little during the centuries which have
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IN SOUTHERN EUROPE 829
elapsed Even as far north as Galicia the influence
of £gypt is felt, as will be observed from this lateen
in the photograph.
In the Marseilles pilot-craft (Figs. 129 and 180)
the lateen is still retained also, even with the addition
of a foresail, which she has probably acquired from
northern Europe. These craft, like the Yorkshire
cobbles, have their rudder projecting some distance
below the keel. They have two rigs for summer and
winter respectively, as will be seen from the dark and
the dotted lines in the sail-plan here given. The winter
rig gives a sail-area of 25*75 square metres, and the
summer area is 87*45 square metres. A shorter mast
is also used for the winter sail-plan, and the lower half
of the yard also is smaller. And notice that, as in the
days of ancient Greece and Rome, the yard is still
made in two pieces, of which the upper half is called
the penne and the lower half the car. Even the stem-
heaa shows traces of the beak, as seen in the galley of
olden times. This type of pilot-boat is certainly a
little old-fashioned now, but it has been thought well
to reproduce it, as it shows more clearly the real con-
nection between the things of the present and those of
yesterday. At the same time it must be remembered
that such craft are still built on these identical lines.
They have an extreme length of 8*50 metres, and an
extreme beam of 2*96 metres.
And so we bring our story to its close. What we
have endeavoured to show tluroughout these pages, by
letterpress as well as by illustration, has been the
historical connection of the different tjrpes of the fore-
and-aft rig. We have begun at the beginning, and
have tried to show, step by step, how different countries
and different localities in those countries have adapted
this rig to suit their own requirements. It is not for
every ship to engage in trans-oceanic voyaging. The
coaster, the fisherman, the pilot, and the yacht are all
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BATEMJ-PILOTEdeMARSEUE
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The blaok lines show the lammer rig and the dotted lines the winter rig.
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882 THE MODERN FORE-AND-AFT RIG
entitled to their existence, and to develop along what-
ever lines may be found best suited to their needs.
They have found that the square-sail, for the reasons
which have already been given, was not altogethar
happy for their requirements, and we cannot but
admire the ingenious manner in which the^ have
adapted, modified, and added to the rig that originally
came to them from the south. Perhaps the next
time we put to sea or loaf round our favourite har-
bour lookmg at some poor fisherman's craft we shall
feel that in spite of her lack of beauty in form, her
want of paint, or her need of a general refit altogether,
she is something more than what she looks — that she is
one of a long line of interesting personalities which
throughout the centuries have been engaged in fishing
and fighting, pirating and privateering, or whatever
duty she may have been sunmioned to perform by the
call of the sea.
For there is no romance like the real romance of
history, and there is amon^ the creations of man
nothing which possesses one tithe of the romance that
is hidden in the ship, whether large or small, square or
fore-and-aft rigged.
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GLOSSARY
NOTE.^B thould he expUnned that the foUovfing is in no eente v^iaUver a
complete gloeea/ry^ but is merely added to make the meaning deanr of certain
Na/uHeal terms not always famdlicn' to the general reader.
Apple-Stern. — A name given to such a shaped end as is found in the
case of many of the Dutch sailing vessels of to-day and yester-
day, with their rounded buttocks.
Balanoe-Luo. — ^The balance-lug has both boom and yard. The tack
is fixed to the forward end of the boom and made taut. As
distinct from a dipping-lug, the balance-lugsail is not dipped al;
each tack.
Barren-Yabd. — The French in the eighteenth century were wont to
speak of the cro'-jack or cross-jack yard as the barren-yard or
vergue sec^ because in those days no sail was set on that yard oT
a full-rigged ship. Similarly, fore-and-aft craft of that period
carried a yard on which no sail was set.
BuoE. — ^The broadest part of a ship's bottom.
BoBSTAY. — ^The stay which is employed for keeping the bowsprit
down to counteract the upward tendency.
Bollard. — A strong post used for the purpose of making fiist a rope.
Bobhikt. — A strip of canvas which is laced along the foot of the sail
to give greater area, as, for instance, in the case of the Lowestoft
drifters and the Norfolk wherries.
Bowlines. — Ropes fastened to the luff of a square-sail for the pur-
pose of keeping the weather-edge of the saO tight forward and
steady when the vessel is close-hauled.
Braces. — ^These are ropes employed for the purpose of controlling
the yards of square-sails, and are made fast to the extremities of
the yards.
Brails. — Ropes which are used for shortening a vessel's canvas by
gathering it up to the mast, as in the case of the Dutchmen of
yesterday and the English barges of to-day.
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884 GLOSSARY
''Break out the Hook." — ^An ezpreMion to denote the breaking
out of the anchor from the ground.
BuMFKiN . — A nnall strong boom for the lead of the mixzen-«heet ;
alio a kind of small bowsprit placed at the bows, usually made
of iron, but sometimes of wood, for extending the foot of the
foresail.
Chain-Plates. — These are plates of iron bolted to the ship's side
beneath the channel (which is a platform bolted to the outside
of the vessel to receive the dead-eyes for setting up the rigging).
The dead-eyes or rigging screws are made fiist either to the
chain-plates by means of links led up through the channels,
or else secured direct to the channels themselves.
Cleat. — A piece of wood so fitshioned as to be convenient for making
fast ropes.
Clinksr-Built. — ^The manner of building a vessel so that the planks
overlap each other ; the exact opposite of carvel-built.
''CocK-A-BiLLED." — ^Thc cxprcssion is used when speaking of an anchor
that is suspended perpendicularly from the cat-head ready to be
let go at once. The expression is also used in reference to the
yard of a ship's square-sail when, the sail having been stowed, the
yard is hauled more or less perpendicularly parallel with the
mast.
Cringle. — A small hole formed on the bolt-rope of a sail with a
brass or iron ring or thimble placed therein.
Drift. — ^The distance which a vessel is carried from her course. It
is also used in this book metaphorically in speaking of the space
between the mast and luff of the malnsaO.
Eyes. — The eyes of a ship are those parts which are in the extreme
forward end of the vessel
Fiddle-Block.-»So called from its similarity in shape to a violin.
FoBBTOOT. — ^The foremost part of a vessel's keeL
Forestay. — ^The sUy on which the foresail is set This stay is for
the support of the mast forward.
Fbkeboabd. — The amount of a ship's hull which is between the
water-line and the guiunrale.
Gaff. — The spar along which the head or upper part of a fore-and-
aft rectangular sail is laced.
Goose-Nbok. — A piece of bent iron or other metal fitted to the end of
a boom so as to allow the spar to move easily and yet be secured
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GLOSSARY 885
to the mast, as, for instance, in the case of a spinnaker boom
goose-neck,
Gbipk. — A vessel is said to gripe when she carries too much weather
heUn ; that is to say^ she has too great a tendency to run up
into the wind.
Guys. — Ropes used for the purpose of steadying a spar.
Gtbi. — When the wind changes from one quarter to another, the
vessel running free, the mainsail of a cutter will swing over to
the other side, and so be said to gybe.
Halyard. — The rope by which a sail is hoisted.
Horse. — An iron or wooden bar along which the sheet of the sail can
travel, as for instance, in the case of a Thames barge. The
latter has a horse placed forward to allow the staysail sheet
to travel thereon.
Leech. — ^The vertical edges of a sail.
Lbedoard. — (For origin see text). Leeboards are specially shaped
" boards " or wings placed on either side of a sailing craft to
diminish her leeway or drift to leeward.
Luff. — The forward edge of a sail. In the case of a cutter's main-
sail, for instance, it is that edge which is next to and parallel
with the mast.
LuGSAiL. — A quadrilateral sail bent on a yard which hangs obliquely
to the mast at one-third of its length forward of the mast. In
the case of the dipping-lug the sail has to be dipped at each
tack and hoisted afresh, so as always to be on the lee side. In
the case of both the standing-lug and the balance-lug no dipping
is necessary.
MizzEN. — ^As applied to a mast, the word signifies the aftermost mast
of a ketch or yawl, whereas in the case of a sdiooner the after>
most mast is called the mainmast and the other the foremast.
As applied to a sail, the mizzen is that sail which is set on the
mizzen-mast.
Peak. — The upper, aftermost comer of a fore-and-aft rectangular
sail
Quant. — ^A pole employed both in Holland and the waterways of
Norfolk and Suffolk for the purpose of propelling a craft in
calms and light airs.
Rakk — ^The inclination from the perpendicular, as, for instance, in
the case of a mast
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886 GLOSSARY
Rbach. — ^When a ressel is sailing moderately dose-hauled for a
certain mark, she is said to be reaching.
RuBBiNo-SrmAKi. — An extra stout piece of planking placed along
both sides of the hull so as to prevent damage to the latter
when coming alongside a quay or other vesseL
Runner. — ^The tackle which is employed for tightening the back-
stays which give additional support to the mast
Shackle. — Reces of inm of more or less semi-circular shape, with
a pin to screw therein. They are employed for numerous pur-
poses on a ship, as, for instance, to attach the staysail to the
forestay.
Sheer. — ^The curve in a vessel's side longitudinally from bow to stem.
Spinnaker. — ^An extra, large triangular sail, set on fore-and-aft vessels
when the wind is free in light weather.
Spreaders. — These may be of wood or of iron, and are used for the
purpose of extending a stay at an angle, and so enabling it
to have greater power.
Spritsail. — The sprit of a fore-and-aft vessel is employed for the
purpose of peaking the sail when there is neither gdf nor boom.
The sprit extends diagonally from forward to aft. The mainsail
of a Thames or Medway barge, for instance, is a spritsaiL
Stays. — Rope or wire employed for the support of mast or bow-
sprit.
SrAYSAiL. — Any sail which is hoisted on a stay. In the case of fore-
and-afters the word is usually employed when referring to the
foresail.
Stebving. — The angle which a ship's bowsprit makes with the hull.
Storm-Jib. — The smallest siaed jU> of extra stout canvas for use in
bad weather,
Stunsails, or more properly Studdino-Sails. — ^These were extra sails
which were set in moderate and steady breeses when running.
They were run out beyond the yardarms, but are nowadays
obsolete.
Tabernacle. — An arrangement fitted for the reception of the mast in
such a manner that the mast can be lowered and raised for going
under bridges.
Throat. — The name given to that part of a gaff which is next to the
mast. Whereas the peak is the after end of the gaff, the throat
is the forward end.
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GLOSSARY 887
ToppiNO-LiFT. — A rope used for the support of the boom of a sail
when the latter has been stowed.
Transom-Sternbd. — A transom-stemed craft is one whose stem ends
abruptly with a bulkhead placed across the stem-post.
Traveller. — A ring employed for the purpose of travelling up and
down a mast, or along a horse. In the case of a lugsail, for
instance, the halyard is attached to the ring, and the latter
hooks on to the yard. Thus the halyard may be hoisted, but
the ring still keeps the halyard close to the mast.
Trysail. — A small sail which a fore-and-af ter sets abaft the mast in
the time of bad weather. It may be set on a small gaff, or may
dispense with the latter and be of a triangular shape.
Tumble-Home. — That part of a ship's side which ''tumbles home," or
£Gtlls inward above the extreme breadth so as to make the vessel
of less beam than on her lower-deck.
Una-Rio. — (See text). This rig consists of one sail, viz. the usual
gaff-and-boom mainsail of a cutter. As there are no headsails
this sail is placed as f&r forward as possible in the boat.
Vanos. — These are ropes leading down from the peak of a sail to the
deck. They are especially noticeable in the old-fashioned
Dutch craft and the present-day Thames and Medway barges.
Water-Sail. — A square-sail on a yard and slung below the bowsprit
This sail is now obsolete, but, under the name of "Jimmy
Green," it was in vogue on full-rigged ships during the early
part of the nineteenth century.
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INDEX
Abraliams, Jan, 33
Admiralty Dutch yacht, lines of, 105
yachts, Dutch, 101
Adriatic, craft of the, 38
Advys-jaght or despatch-boats^ 100
Alarrn, the, 133, 205
Aline^ the, 210
Alpha, the, 247
America, the Dutch in, 19
America^ the, 174, 209
America Cup, the, 140, 204
American yachting, 259
Amstel, the, 60
Amsterdam, 20
Amunsden, Capt., 205, 284
Ann Sarahf the, 174
Anne, the Duke of York's yacht, 135
cost of building the, 144
Archer, Colin, 284
Archttectwra navalis mercatoria, 113
Arentzen, Arent, 73
Arrow, the, 205
Askgard, the, 286
AtcUania, the, 174, 197
Auxiliary motor fishing-boat, 282
B
Badiley, Capt. William, 144
"Badminton" yachting volumes, 171
Bakhuyzen, 56, 90
Balance-lug, the, 30
Ballast in Norwegian craft, 287
of the Seal, 270
of the racing yacht, 257
889
Ballast of pilot-cutter, 246
of shot and stone, 205
of the yacht Mary, 135
Baltic influence, 277
Baltimore clippers, 203
Barentsz, William, 64
Barge, Thames, 230
Barren-yard, the, 111
Batten, Sir W., 158
Bawley rig, the, 94
Bawley, the Thames, 230
Belanders, 72
Belgian lugger, the, 310
Bellevois, Jacob, artist, 53
Benthall, E. H., 212
Bergen-op-Zoom, defeat of the Span-
iards at, 62
Bermuda rig, the, 79
" Beurtman ** or freight-carrier, 114
Bezan, the, 137
dimensions of the, 141
Pepys and the, 148
Billingsgate oyster boats, 175
Billy -boy, the modem, 167
Bisquines, 320
Blake, Admiral, 52
Blankenberg luggers, 225
Bloodhound, the, 211
Blue Dragon, the, 214
Boier, the, 102
yacht, the, 301
Boijman's museum, 33, 77, 92, 110,
201
'*Bolte-sprit,"the, 63
Bomb-ketch, the, 107
BoneUa sloop, dimensions of, 143
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840
INDEX
Bonington, 168
Bonnets, 65
Boeham, tombstone at, 191
«BoBkoopboot,"a,292
Boulogne herhng-drifter, the, 315
Bow-eprit, dangen of the, 83
the, 99
Bowlines, 225, 278
Bragozzi, the, 38
Breton sailors, 324
sardine boats, 824
Brighton hoggies, 222
Bristol Channel, the, 242
BriUtnma, the, 253
Britith Marinet'i VocaJMary^ defini-
tion of a schooner, 203
British Museum, the, 126
Brixham, 238
Brocksprit or bowsprit, 201
Brooking, 168
Buckie boats, 240
Bulwarks, high, 289
Bureau Veritas, the, 258
Burlings, the, 87
Busses, seventeenth-century, 162
Buss-ship, sixteenth-century, 52
influence of the English, 162
Calais, 20
" Calais Pier," Turner's, 179
Camper and Nicholson, 258
Cat-boat type of craft, 261
CoUherine, the, 143
Centreboard, the, 73
American preference for the, 260
craft, craze for, 210
sloop, the, 259
Chafing, damage caused by, 28
*• Chaloep'' or "boot," the, 68
Channel Isles, Charles II. sailing in
the, 132
Chapman, Frederick Hennik Af., 113
Charles I. the Sovereign of the seas, 52
Charles II. at Breda, 128
in the Channel Isles, 132
his knowledge of naval matters,
142
CharloUe, the, 143
Cherub 111,2^4
Childers, Erskine, 286
Ckildren'i Friend, the, 241
Chinese junks, 40
trawlers, 40
Chioggia, craft of, 39
Clark, Capt, Hittory of YachHng, 129
Classes, 258
Clayton, Harold, 247
Cleavdand, the, 143
Cobble, the, 226
Cockpit of pilot-cutter, 245
Codes of signals for yacht dubs,
173, 195
Columbia^ the, 260
Constable, 168
Conditution, the, 260
Cooke, E. W., 108, 166, 168, 175,191,
204,235
Coquette, the, 208
Cork yachts, 170
yachts, rig of the, 172
club, 194
Cornish luggers, 240
Corsair^ the, 214
Counter stem, the, 168
Cowes Yacht Club, 194
Creole, the, 214
Cruisers, 264
Cumberland Fleet, the, 173, 194
Cutter, origin of the modem, 96
Cutter-rig, 93
for yachts, 197
Cutters as yachts, 178
Dagomar, the, 174
Dahabia, the mainyard of a, 31
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INDEX
841
Daniell, William, 106
Dardanelles, the coaster of the, 39
Dead-eyes, the, 118
Deal lugger, the, 236
Deane, Sir Anthony, 07
Defender, the, 260
Del&haven, 61
Deptford, the yacht Mairy at, 134
Devon seamen, 230
Dhow, the, 31
Dictionnaire de Marine of 1736, 90
Dimensions of the Britannia, 254
otOheruhIIL,2n4:
of Norma, 274
of the Satanita, 256
of the Seal, 270
of SheOa IL, 272
Dinghy of the Seal, 271
shipping a, 244
Dipping-lug, the, 56
Doidrecht Museum, the, 75^ 201
Dordtsche Kil, the, 120
« Double-ended " craft, 268
Dulwich Gallery, the, 172
DtuMrk, the, 147
Dunkirk sloop, 143
fishing-ketch, 312
Dutch boier, the, 301
hotter, the, 205
eighteenth-century yacht, a,
160
East India Company, the, 133
as explorers, the, 64
expeditions of discovery, 65
galleot, 107
hoogarts,208
in the East, 40
klipper, the, 203
influence in America, 100
marine painters, 80
• naval architecture, 87
Navy, the, 101
painters of the seventeenth
century, 53
Dutch Bevenue-cutter, 183
sailor-man, the, 21
schokker, the, 207
sloepe, the, 180
"schuyt,"a,175
state yachts, 100
Una-rig, 305
War, causes of the firsts 62
Dutchman's love of the sea, the, 122
Egeria, the, 210
Egyptian boats, the square-sail of, 28
ElandtB, the artist, 60
Emblem, the, 241 •
Enkhuizen " beurtman," an, 114
Ensign stafi^ the curved, 84
Equihen, fishing-craft of, 320
Evelyn's description of a yacht-race,
130
Experiment, the, 153
Faith, the, 247
Falconer's Dictionary, 180
definition of a yaoht, 188
Fannes or Vanes, 163
Felucca, the Spanish, 41
Fend-offs on Dutch craft, 170
Ferrers, Lord, 170
Fife of Fairlie, 267
Fifie boats, 240
Fishing-boats and yachts, mutual
influence of, 216
Fishing-pink, a three-masted, 103
Fishing-smack, the origin of the,
20
Flushing, 20
defeat of the Spaniards at, 62
pilots, 304
Flute or pink, 53
Fly, the, 185
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842
INDEX
Foreign influencee in English ship-
building, 136
Forty-tonners, {amons, 211
Foxhound, the, 211
From, the, 284, 290
Fubbi, the, 143
dimensions of the, 146
Qaff, the, 79
origin of the, 96
Galleass, the, 36
Galleot, Dutch, 107
QaUeots, 143, 279
GaUey, the, 32
Galleys of Venice, the, 46
Gallic naval design and construction,
200
German sport, British influence on,
258
Oermamat the, 269
Germanischere Lloyd, 258
Gilded leather for King Charles's
yachts, 144
Qjoa, the, 206
Qladyi, the, 262
Gloucester, the birthplace of the
schooner, 202
**Goared" sails, 110
Gouda, 126
Goulding, John, captain of the Mary,
140
Government cutters and private
yachts, 199
Grace, the, 246
Grand Banks, the, 326
Gravelines lugger, a, 312
Great Fire, influence of, on sport, 169
Greenwich Royal Observatory, found-
ing of, 142
Oreyhound, the, 143
Guest, Montague, history of the
Royal Yacht Squadron, 195
Guns on yachts, 106
H
Hatch-boat, the, 176
HervrieUa, the, 143, 147
Henry Vni^ 57
Herreshoff, 263
Herring-buss, the, 50
Herring-drifters of the Low Coun-
tries, 49
Herring industry, the, 52
Historical documents concerning the
king's yachts, 145-146
History of Yachting^ Captain Clark's,
129,154
« Hoeker," sails of the, 164
Hoggies, 222
Hollandsch Diep, unpleasant con-
ditions in, 60, 104,^ 130
Hooy-schip, the, 126
«* Horse, the breaking of the," 192
Hoy, the, 190
I
India, the Dutch in, 19
Ireland, yachting in, 169
IsaheUa, the, 143
Ide of Wight, dimensions of the, 142
Itchen Ferry craft, 268
Jamaie, dimensions of the, 141
Java, the Dutch in, 19
Javanese vessel, sails of a, 30
Jenny, Charles II.'s yacht, 136
Jullanar, the, 211
Katherine, Queen, a yacht owner, 158
B:atwiik Pom, a, 308
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INDEX
848
Kensington Palace, sea-pieces in, 168
Ketch rig, the, 109
King's Fisher, the, 173
Kitchen^ the,
** Knock-toes," 237
Kof.tjalk, the, 111
Kola in Lapland, 67
Kromhont motors, 114
"Kub-boot,"the,303
Lacing and hoope, 74
Lateen rig, the, 32
sail, the, 31, 95
and square-sail, 48
Lead sheathing, 148, 153
Leeboards, 71
Leslie's Old Sea Wings, Ways, and
Wards, 47, 181
Lifeboat) Norwegian and English,
285
Life-lines, 169
Linschoten, Jan Hnygen yon» 64
Lloyd's, 258
Loch Fjne skifib, 226
"Lood8loep,"a, 304
Lowestoft drifter, the, 55
Lowestoft harbour, 229
Lug-sail, the, 39, 40, 50, 162
Lugger, evolution of the three-
masted, 161
Lugger, speed of the, 162
Luggers and galleys, 57
liaas, the, 19
Mahommedan galleys, 40
Mainsail of seventeenth -oentury
busses, 162
Manwayring, 177
Maria, centre-board sloop, 208
Marine painting, 88
Market-barge, the, 81
Marseilles fishing-boat, 33
MarshaU, C. D., 267
Mary, the, England's first yacht, 22,
63,133
Mary, dimensions and rigging of the,
137
Mary IL, 22, 134, 143
dimensions of, 155
Mad and SaU, W. Smyth's, 122
Masts of Dutch yachts, 100
Maud, the, 266
Mauritshuis at the Hague, the, 55,
85,105
Measurement rules, 213
Measurement and rating of racing
craft, international rule for the,
257
Mediterranean galleys, 57
Mediterranean, rigging on the, 31
Medway barge, dimensions of, 233
Merlin, the, 143
Meteor, 26S
Middle Ages, rigging of the, 31
Middleborg, the abbey at, 62
Minion, dimensions of the, 143
Monamy, Peter, 168, 172
Monmouth, the, 143
Moore's Midshipman^s or British
Mariner^ s Vocabulary, 188
Mosquito, the, 208
Motor auxiliary, the, 46
pUot-ketches, 250
power, 251
Mule, the, 228
Muletta, the, 33, 36
•'Mumble bees," 238
Municipal Museum at the Hague, 50
N
Nabbies, 225
Nasdjy, the, 132
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844
INDEX
NatioiuJ Qallery, the, 110
Nautical AlmanaCf founding of Uie,
142
Nautical nomendatnre, carelManeM
in, 67
^ovo^ the, 254
Naval architecture during Charles 11^
142
dedgnB, improvement in« 186
manoBUvres by Dutch yachti,
101
Namd AreMUeiuire, Stalkartt^a, 186
Navigation difficulties in Holland, 80
impulse to, 142
Navy, the, 143
dimenfliona of the, 146
Navj lists, yachta numbered in the,
143
NeUie Jane, the, 241
Netherlands, the, the ** waggoners of
the sea," 19
New York Yacht Club, the, 260
Newhaven, 20
Niobe, the, 214
Norma, the, 274
North-east Passage, the, 64
North-west Passage, discovery of the,
206
Norwegian " jaegt,** the, 277
pQot craft, 290
sailing lifeboat, 284
Nova Zembla, discovery of, 66
Nugger, sail-plan of Egyptian, 20
Nyria, the, 258
Oars of the "^ mule," 228
Ofmora, the, 210
Old Sea Wing$, JFays, and Wmds,
Leslie's, 47, 181
Orange, the Prince of, and Oharles II,,
129
Ostend,20
Outiook, the, 260
Paid hand, the, 266
"Patron "or master, 55
Pftviljoen-pom, the, 117
Pioirl, the, 205
Penzance drifters, 241
Pcpys, 97
extract from his Dioary, 134
love of yachting, 148-153
Peter-boat, the, 175
Pett, commissioner, 134
Pilot-boat, the origin of the, 20
Pilot-cutters, Bristol Channel, 242
Pink, rig of the, 94
Pinks, 143
Plague, influence of, on sporty 159
Plymouth hooker, 240
"Pom" or "Bom," the, 119
Pompe, Gerrit, 110
Poole fishing-cutters, 178
Poop-deck, the, 169
Popham, Sir Home, 195
Portsmouth barges, 235
PorUmouth, the, 143
rigging of the, 157
Portsmouth wherry, the, 60
Portuguese muletta, the, 36
Prichett, R. T., 171
Prme$ of Orange, the, 117
PHnee Boyal, the, 151
Pumps on Dutch boats, 99
Q
Queen Mab, the, 214, 255
QueenborougK, the, 142
Racing yacht, the, 256
Ram, survival of tkt, 37
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Slizabeth'i
Bam8gate,20
Ramagate harbour, 22d
Eat 0* Wight, Queen
pleasure ship, 97
Bating, 214
"Redningskoite," tlie, 285
Beefing-gear, 243
Regattas on the TliaixLeSy 173
Edicmce, the, 260
Renaissance, influeixce of the, 47
Revenue cruiser, tli.e9 179 ; dimen-
sions, 181
Richmond, Duke of, a yacht-owner,
168
BiddU of the Sands, ttxe, 286
Rijks Museum, tKe, 07, 69, 69, 98,
106, 114, 117, no, 130, 301
Rigging at the begp-nxiiiig of the nine-
teenth-century, 114:
of BiDingsgato oyster-boats,
176
of Charles XI.'« yacht, 129
of the cutter, ISO
of Dutch Revenue-cutter, 183
of the hatcli-l>oat, 177
of Afary JZ., 1^^
of the PartsmauiJh 1^7
of Thames t>argefl, 236
Rig of the Cork: yachts, 172
Royal Chcarles, tlie, 132
Royal Cork Yaelit OluhlB^
— Easterx. Yacht Club i^
— Harwicl^ Yacht Club^
— Mersey YacW Club, 207
_ Northerx. Yacht Club, 207
_ St. George'a Yacht (^ub 207
Sontheni Yacht Club, 207
Southero^^^^ Club, the, 173,
INDEX 845
Rudder, hatchet-ehaped, 109
Ruskin and Dutch marine painters,
90
Russell, Scott, 208
BuysdaU, 110
Thaoa^a
207
Victoria Yacht Club, 207
— W^rx. Yacht Club, 207
Yacht Cluh, the, 196
Yacht Squadron, 207
Rudder, the, 126
S
Saenredam, Johannes, 70
Saevareid, the, 262
St. HeUm, the, 260
St Malo barquentines, 326
St Malo, fishing craft of the Bay of,
320
Sail area of the BrUaniMa, 264
of CWtt!»I/J.,274
of Norma, 274
of the Seal, 270
of Sheila IL, 272
Sail areas, increasing, 197
Sail-plan of fishing smack, 191
of the « redningskoite,'' 287
Sailmakers and designers, influence of
the America on, 210
Sailing Ships and their St&ry, 17, 286
Sails, cotton and silk, 214
Sails of the " hoeker," 164
of the Mary, the, 136
Sails, striped, 169
Satanita, the, 264
Scandinavians, influence of the, 42,
44,277
Scarborough ketch, 229
SchanVs sliding keel, 186
Scheldt and Thames, 232
Scheldt, the, 19, 20, 48, 73
Scheveningen, Charles II. at, 132
Church, painting in, 60
pink, the, 306
Schooner, the, 76 ; development, 81,
199
Scotch fishing craft, 224
Scotch smack, 190
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846
INDEX
£(002, the, 268
^Semaque/'the, 124
SemelU de derive, or leeboard, 71
Sems, 168
Shamrock, the, 133
Shamrodc IV., 264
Sheila IL, 271
Shipbuilding industry, the, 193
Skaffie8,226
Skiffs, 225
" Skimming dishes," 257
Slocum, Captain, 204
Sloepe, or sloop, the, 67, 201, 204,
304
Sloop in America, the, 189
Sloop, Falconer's definition of a, 187
Sloop, how the word is used in
America, 68
Smack, Falconer's definition of a, 190
origin of the, 124
«Smal-schip,''the, 124
Smuggling, 178
Smyth's, W., Mast and Sail, 122
Solebay, the battle of, 155
SolerU, the, 250
barges, 236
<' South Sea," shallow water of the,
115
Southampton water, 20
Sovereign of the Sea$, the, 149
Spanish felucca, the, 41
fishing craft, 36
galleys in Holland, 70
Spanker, the, 41
Spinnaker, the, 214
the germ of the, 76
Spitsbergen, discovery of, 65
Sprit-rig, disadvantages of, 94
Spritsail of Holland, the, 278
in Turkish waters, the, 39
Square-rigged ships, 23, 28
Square-sail, usefulness of the, 27, 111
on Chinese junks, the, 40
Squarenaails disappearing, 198
Stalkartf s Naval Arehitedwre, 185
Stanfield, Clarkson, 168
Steam trawler, the, 230
Steers, George, 208
Stem-formation, 281
Stem, the high, in Dutch boats, 116
loftiness of the, 168
post, the, 169
windows, 109
Stems of Dutch vessels, the, 93, 97
Storck, Abraham, 55, 105
Strijensas, 104
Stumpy, the, 234
Sussex luggers, 222
Swiss lakes, the lateen rig on, 32
Tapestry at Middleburg, 62
Tartana, the Mediterranean, 35
Thames, the, temp, Charles IL, 149
barge, the, 230
bawley, the, 230
measurement, the, 213
skiff, the, 103
yacht-racing on the, 173
Theories of designers, 208
Thietle, the, 133, 212
Thome, Robert, map by, 62
Tiller, the, 116
Timber for King Charles's yachts, 144
Tjalk, the, 291
Tonnage, 197
Topsail, the, 191
schooner, the, 27
Trabaccolo, the, 38
Transom stem, the, 168
Trawling industry, mulettas in the,
37
Trek-paard, or towing-horse, 98
Trial, the, 185
Turner, 168
Turner's "Gakis Pier," 179
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Tomer's early drawings, (
Two Brothers, the, 192
Una-rig, the, 60
Union, the, 204
INDEX 847
Watson, G. L., 211, 254:
Wykeham-Martin furling gear, the,
267
Wyoming, the, 203
VaXhfrit I., the, 254
Fottyrw IL, the, 265
Van Beijeren, Abraham Hendricksz,
92
der Capelle, Jan, 110
Qoyen, Jan Josephsz, 85
der Velde, 56, 90, 154
Vlooswyck and Charles II., 133
Vend^enne craft, 324
Venice, galleys of, 46
Verschuier, Lieve, 130
Vigiiani, the, 254, 260
Vikings of the North, the, 31
Vlie-boot, the, 53
Voyage Bound OreaJt BrUam, A, 196
W
''Waggoners of the sea," the, 19
Walcheren, the island of, 20, 59
Westtoard, the, 263
fFhUe HeaOier, the, 133, 258
mUU Heaiher IL, 258
Willaerts, Adam, 75, 201
Willemstadt, 104
Willoughby, English navigator, 65
Windlass, the, 116
Winds prevalent in Holland, 130
"Water-sails," 36, 63
Water Tower Museum at Dordrecht,
111
Yacht, the origLn. of the, 20, 97
origin of tVie word, 98
a strange, 77
of Charles II., 129
of 1816, tlie, 180
club during the Victorian era,
207
cluba in tlie early eighteenth
century, 160
clubB, constitution of, 171
Falconer's definition of a, 188
Yacht-racing, 139
Association, the, 212
on the Thames, 173
Yachting, 22
club, the first, 159
Yachli'nff Monthly, the, 268
Yacht's boat, the, 103
Yachts, development in size, 205
for pleasure and utility, 178
in warfare, 169
Yarmouth harhour, 229
Yawl, the, 199
Yawl-rigged harges, 235
*« Yawls,*' double-ended, 278
Zeehrugge, 20
Zeland and Frisian leeboards, 72
Zuyder Zee, the, 19
Zulus, 225
Zwouxird or leeboard, 71
PriBted by baij.i*tt»s, Hawom *• Co.
Sdlnlmri^ ^ London
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